Salmon with hot, sweet and sour Asian sauce + a new favorite TV show

Joao was watching TV the other day and discovered, completely unintentionally, Martin Dorey’s “One Man and His Campervan” – he rushed me to the living room and I instantly fell in love with the show: not only the places he visits are beautiful but he also cooks delicious recipes in a very small space, using just a few utensils – I wish the people who tell me that they don’t cook because their kitchen is too tiny could watch this show, too. :)
After watching a handful of episodes I placed his cookbook on my wish list – let’s see how long it will take me to buy it (heaven knows I have no sense of self control when it comes to cookbooks). :)

From a very new TV favorite of mine to the eternal #1: Nigella. This salmon is so quick to prepare and tastes so amazing that I am sure you’ll get addicted to it as I have. Make the rice way before starting with the salmon because it will take you less than 10 minutes to take it from the fridge to the table.

Salmon with hot, sweet and sour Asian sauce
slightly adapted from the fantastic Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 red or green chilies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 spring onions, white part only, finely sliced
¼ cup (60ml) fish sauce
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons water
1 x 600g skinless salmon fillet

Make the sauce: place the garlic, chilies, ginger, spring onion, fish sauce, sake, mirin, lime juice and water in a bowl and mix to combine. Set aside.
Sear the salmon on a flat griddle or frying pan over medium heat for 4-5 minutes on one side and 1-2 minutes on the other. The salmon should be opaque and cooked in the center. Remove from heat and transfer the fish to a plate. Flake the fish slightly and drizzle with some of the sauce.
Serve at once, with the remaining sauce on the side.

Serves 4

Chicken teriyaki

I’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember and in certain periods of my life I did not have much time to spend in the kitchen – I needed delicious yet quick meals for weeknights.
On my days as a single lady I used to make lots of pasta – both my dad and my sister are crazy for it and dinner would be on the table in less than half an hour.

Recently I’ve been trying my hand at Asian recipes and some of them are absolutely delicious – and equally fast. This chicken teriyaki is a great example: it has instantly become a favorite of my husband’s – a.k.a. "the picky eater" – and it took me moments to put it together.

Let me tell you something: if my husband liked it, picky people everywhere will probably like it, too. :D

Chicken teriyaki
slightly adapted from the wonderful Nigella Kitchen

2 tablespoons sake
¼ cup mirin (sweet Japanese Rice wine)
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
4 spring onions, white part only, sliced
splash of sesame oil
800g (1¾ pounds) chicken thigh fillets (no skin or bones), cut into bite-sized pieces
½ tablespoon neutral vegetable oil
freshly ground black pepper
handful of parsley leaves, chopped
rice, to serve

In a bowl large enough to hold all the chicken pieces, mix together the sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, spring onions and sesame oil. Add the chicken pieces and turn to coat each one of them in the sauce. Leave for 15-20 minutes.
Heat the oil in a large, shallow frying pan (with a lid) and, using a perforated spoon, transfer the chicken pieces to the pan and sauté until they look cooked on the outside.
Pour the marinade over the chicken, bring to a boil, then cover and turn down the heat, cooking for 5-10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thick.
Stir in with freshly ground black pepper and the parsley. Serve immediately with rice.

Serves 4-6 – I halved the recipe above and Joao and I ate every little bit of it. :)

Sake panna cotta

My dear and sweet friend Clarice is hosting a special event to celebrate 100 years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil. She is a Brazilian of Japanese ascendancy and has been living in Japan for almost 2 decades now.



The event is about cooking or baking with Japanese ingredients. I thought about so many different recipes, but ended up choosing this one – all I did was use sake instead of grappa. It was my first time making a panna cotta and I was pleased with the result – the sake flavor is very subtle and the cooked apples and syrup compliment it beautifully.

Clarice, darling, I hope you like my entry! It took me a while to post it because I wanted to make it in my brand new kitchen. :)

Sake panna cotta
adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

300ml double cream
300ml pouring cream
110g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, removed with a peeler
60ml sake
2½ leaves of gelatin (titanium strength)*, softened in cold water

Sake apples:
2 pink lady apples, cored and cut into thin wedges – I used Gala apples
juice of 1 lemon
165g caster sugar
grated zest of ½ lemon
12 cloves
125ml sake

Heat creams, caster sugar, lemon zest and half the sake and stir over low heat until combined (4-5 minutes). Increase heat to medium and cook gently until mixture comes to the boil (4-5 minutes). Squeeze excess water from gelatin, add to cream mixture and stir to dissolve, remove from heat and cool to blood temperature. Strain, add remaining sake, stir and pour into six ½-cup-capacity dariole moulds rinsed with water. Refrigerate overnight or until set.

For sake apples, combine apples and lemon juice in a bowl and set aside. Heat sugar, lemon zest, cloves and ¾ cup water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low and simmer gently until reduced to ¾ cup (8-10 minutes). Drain apples, reserving liquid, add apples and half the sake to sugar syrup, return to the boil over medium-high heat, then simmer very gently over low heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender and translucent (35-40 minutes), add reserved lemon juice and remaining sake and cook until syrupy (8-10 minutes). Cool to room temperature.

To serve, briefly dip panna cotta moulds into boiling water and invert onto serving plates. Serve with sake apples to the side, drizzled with extra syrup.

* I had no idea of kind of gelatin this was, so I used 6 leaves of regular gelatin. I think I could have done with 5.

Serves 6