Last night I made dinner. Since I’m going to be living in Culinary House next year, I figured it was time I practiced my cooking skills a bit. More importantly, since Alicia has taught me everything I know about cooking, I figured that this time I should make something without her help as much as possible. Seeing as I decided to cook while in the grocery store, I didn’t exactly have a recipe or a plan in mind. So I figured I ought to document what I threw together, if only for my own ability to try it again and tweak it.

Note: All my measurements here are approximate because I didn’t measure everything as I went. Expect a little tweaking to be necessary.

Spicy Mustard Salmon (serves 2)

1 lb. fillet salmon
3 Tbsp. ground mustard (I used Ingelhoffer pure mustard)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1-2 tsp. shredded fresh ginger root
2 cloves garlic, pressed
juice of 1/2 lime
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. raw sesame seeds

Basically, I mixed up everything but the sesame seeds and basted about half of it onto the salmon. Then, I cooked the salmon at 400° for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, I took out the salmon, re-basted it, sprinkled on the sesame seeds, and put it back in for another 10 minutes or so. After 6-7 minutes, I turned the oven up to 500° to broil it a little bit.

In retrospect, I think that I should probably turn the oven to broil immediately after re-basting, in order to carmelize the sauce. Since the sauce is fairly thick and it doesn’t have a high sugar content, it should take quite a bit of heat to make it brown well. I’m going to continue to work on that part for next time.

To accompany the salmon, I made some Asian noodles. This was sort of thrown together, so I couldn’t really duplicate a recipe, but there was some white balsamic vinegar (I didn’t have rice wine vinegar, which I would recommend), the juice of 1/4 lime or so, some soy sauce, about a tablespoon of Thai hot sauce, some Penzey’s Bangkok Blend, a teaspoon of sugar or so, some canola oil, some more sesame seeds, and of course salt and pepper to taste. I used lo mein noodles, but you could use rice noodles as well. I cooked the noodles, then rinsed them in cold water and threw in the spices. I put the whole thing in the refrigerator and served it chilled. The noodles stuck a little because of the honey, but if you substituted some other sugar, they might not. It provided a nice, cooler compliment to the salmon.

We also had a salad with Asian pears and a vinaigrette made with mostly the same ingredients (vinegar, juice of 1/2 orange, juice of 1/4 lime, maybe a 1/2 tablespoon of mustard, a clove of garlic, salt and pepper). The whole meal really fit together quite nicely, and it was convenient to reuse most of the ingredients.

Admittedly, I’m not the best cook in the world, but I get the job done. And for a bachelor who never cooked before he came to college, I think I do alright for myself, especially considering I didn’t have a recipe for any of this. I’ll keep you updated on the rest of my culinary adventures.

Posted on May 3rd, 2004 by Lee
Tagged: Food