Five Spice Salmon with Noodles; Mango and Pepper Salsa
I’d like to pretend that my recent absence from the blogosphere was due to a number of fascinating real-world commitments, which entirely monopolised my free-time but will make excellent dinner-party conversation for years to come. Unfortunately, the real reason is tragically mundane: my laptop died. The grieving period was short however, and I managed to struggle on, even making it to my first ever GAA match – and what a match it was.
Delicious Served with Mango and Pepper Salsa
Now though, ‘new’ (i.e. other, reconditioned), laptop in hand, I am back, and able to tell you all about my latest culinary undertakings, with no nasty real-world commitments to deter me. Oh, except that I’m still working that crazy million-hours-a-day-on-the-other-side-of-the-city job but its good to be busy!
One of the quote-unquote ‘perks’ of my summer job is that lunch and dinner are included. Which is nice because it’s convenient, and less nice because it’s a lot of chips and pizza. So while I like to think that this salmon was delicious based on its own merits, please do bear in mind that I hadn’t had a home-cooked meal in three weeks!
Five-Spice Salmon with Noodles
For the Salmon:
4 salmon fillets
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Juice 1/2 lime
2 teaspoons Five Spice powder
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 thumb fresh ginger, finely chopped
For the Noodles:
4 portions dried whole-wheat noodles
2 teaspoons sunflower oil
1 teaspoon seasame oil
2 heads Pak Choi
1 bunch asparagus
1/2 green chilli, sliced on the diagonal
1. Prepare the marinade for the salmon by mixing the honey, soy sauce, lime juice, five spice, red chilli and ginger together. Spread over the salmon and leave to marinade for 15-20 minutes.
2. Slice the pak choi and chop the asparagus into thirds. Add the green chilli and sunflower oil to a wok and heat for two minutes (or as long as it takes for the oil to get very hot) before adding the chopped vegetables.
3. Cook the noodles in boiling water for two minutes, then drain and add to the wok, along with the sesame oil.
4. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and fry the salmon for 3-4 minutes on each side. Check the noodles and vegetables throughout – remove from the heat when the vegetables are still al dente.
For the Mango and Pepper Salsa mix the juice of half a lime with 1 mango, diced, 2/3 red pepper diced and a handful of chopped coriander.
