Inaugurating My New Kitchen Tools
25 March 2008
After having resolved all major issues concerning our new kitchen I actually get along quite well with my cooking. I am particularly impressed by the two portable induction heaters I bought – they are so powerful and just react immediately when you turn the heat up and down. Cooking is sooo much more fun like this! My slight worries that the fuses might not take them both at a time have also been dispelled. They actually work perfectly, even with the water kettle and the rice cooker running. This latter one has in fact also proven an extremely useful tool, which I do not want to do without anymore. As I did not use it for this particular meal it deserves special attention in a different post, though!
Two less high-tech but remarkably useful tools are my steaming pot and a ginger grater (which is particularly important for Japanese cooking). The steamer follows a very simple concept: You fill some liquid into the bottom of the pot and place the food you would like to steam in a basket-like inlay just above the boiling liquid. This one actually even has two of these inlays at different levels, so you could steam two different things at a time. Anyways, I like this steaming pot a lot and will certainly use it very frequently, particularly for vegetables. It is really convenient as the food can hardly ever burn, and the result is extremely tasty...
So here is my very first recipe posted from Japan! Of course I start off with a fish recipe – by the way one of the few products that are actually less expensive than back in Europe, and even in our small nearby supermarket the fish is of superb quality…
Spicy Salmon, Steamed Spinach and Soba
| serves 4 |
| 500g salmon filet |
| 250g (Japanese) spinach |
| 250g shiitake mushrooms |
| 2 tablespoons of crushed cashew nuts |
| 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (peeled and roasted) |
| 400g soba (buckwheat noodles) |
for the salmon’s marinade |
| 100ml soy sauce |
| 100ml (cooking) sake |
| 3-4 teaspoons of grated ginger |
| 2 tablespoons of dark sesame oil |
| a pinch of shichimi
(Japanese assorted chili powder) |
for steaming the vegetables |
| 200ml (cooking) sake |
| 100ml soy sauce |
| some water |
Cut the salmon into bite-sized cubes. Prepare a marinade consisting of soy sauce, sake, fresh ginger (ideally grated with a ginger grater, otherwise diced into tiny little cubes), as well as some sesame oil, and season to taste with chili powder. Cover the salmon with the marinade and allow to rest in the fridge for about an hour.
In a steaming pot, heat a mixture of sake, soy sauce and water. Wash the spinach and the mushrooms and coarsely slice the latter ones. Put the vegetables in the steaming pot’s basket and place it above the steaming mixture. Season the vegetables with some salt, cover the pot with a lid and let it steam for about 20 minutes. If you do not have a steaming pot or similar, just cover the vegetables with sake and soy sauce and let it simmer until soft (the mushrooms should have some bite remaining, though). Check regularly if the vegetables get too dry, and if so add some more liquid.
Roast the crushed cashew nuts in a non-stick frying pan and remove them when slightly browned. Repeat with the sesame seeds if you have not bought them roasted already.
Turn up the heat and when the pan is very hot, lift the salmon out of its marinade and add it to the pan. Briefly sear the fish while stirring constantly; turn the heat down after just about a minute or so and add the steamed vegetables as well as the remaining marinade. Let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes, and finally stir in the roasted cashews and sesame seeds.
The soba noodles are actually very quick to prepare. If you take dried ones, boil them in salt water for about 5-6 minutes (check the instructions on the package), then drain and rinse them with cold water – this will stop the cooking process and keep the noodles from getting too sticky. If you take fresh soba the cooking time will of course be even less. In any case, try to time them accordingly to have them ready as soon as the stir-fry is done.
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