Salmon, Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Took an afternoon walk. The warmth of the late summer evening sun was soothing and comforting. All my stress accumulated through the week disappeared.

 

You don't have to travel far to find beauty.  This community farm around my neighborhood looks differently under different lights and weather.

Wish the summer color can last forever. 

After the walk, I made this simple soup for the evening.  With the abundance of salmon in Vancouver this year, this is a quick and delicious way to make use of the fish. I especially like the lemon zest and juice added at the end.  It freshen and lighten up the soup. Please don't skip it!

Recipe: Salmon, Shrimp and Corn Chowder

Adapted from Epicurious.com, original author Mary Karlin

Serves 2 to 4

Ingredients:

2      Tbsp olive oil

1      stalk of celery, cut into 1/2" slices

2      unpeeled small red potatoes, cut int 3/4" cubes

1/2    tsp salt
1/2    tsp ground white pepper

2-3   green onions, coarsely chopped, including the green parts

1       ear of corn, cut out the kernels

2       cups fish or chicken stock

1/2    cup half and half  (or heavy cream)

1       lb salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed, cut into 1" pieces

8-10  shrimps, shelled

grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

2       Tbsp minced fresh dill

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium heat.  Saute the celery for 2 mins. Add potatoes, salt and pepper and cook, saute and stirring occasionally for about 3 to 5 mins.Add green onions, corn and 2 cups of stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 12 mins or until the potatoes are almost tender.
2. Add half and half, uncovered, simmer until potatoes are completely soft, about 3 mins. Stir in salmon, shrimps and lemon zest. Simmer gently until the seafood are cooked through, about 3 to 4 mins. Add more stock as needed. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.  Sprinkle dill on top when serve. 
   

(P.S. This post had been in progress for a while and only until now did I have time to complete it.   Fall is upon us now. But the memory of summer still stays on...at least in the pictures) 

Pad Thai and Mango Smoothie

We've been having a streak of good weather in Vancouver lately. Blue sky, light breeze, 20-ish temperature; all the complains of gloomy cold wet weather in early summer were gone. On days like these, it is very hard to keep working in the office. All you think about is to get through the week as quickly as possible so as to enjoy the weekends outdoor. This is also not the good time to sit in front of the computer retouching pictures and composing blog posts.  Yes, I admit that I'm a little slow in updating my post.  But, in times when I'm not blogging, in between working and golfing, I'm still actively seeking inspiration for photography, trying out new recipes and thinking about what to eat and what to post.

Just when I was being a bit too laid back, the folks at  food52 did a nice writeup on this blog.  That is a big encouragement to me. I hope I can keep up my work and continue to put up posts with food that I love and pictures that are interesting to look at, not just once. (That is my goal!) 

Back to food. Does hot summer and spicy hot food go together?  Yes, it does.  Especially when it is accompanied with a refreshing cold fruity drinks. Pad thai is probably the most popular Thai dish other than Thai curry. I love the sweetness, sourness and spiciness, all come together to form a complex yet balanced flavor. Don't be scare by the long list of ingredients.  It does take a while (around 40mins including time spent on roasting peanuts) to prep all the ingredients. But once you have all the prep work done, the actual cooking time takes about 10mins only. As for the drink, mango is sweet and aromatic, with a hint of banana and milk, this drink needs no sugar if all the fruit are ripe. And,  it takes just a few seconds to whip up.

Recipe: Pad Thai

Adapted from  Cook's Illustrated Magazine, August 2002

Ingredients:

2       Tbsp tamarind paste*

3/4    cup boiling water

3       Tbsp fish sauce

1       Tbsp rice vinegar

3       Tbsp sugar

4       Tbsp canola oil

8       oz. dried rice sticks, about 1/8" wide*

2        large eggs

1/4     tsp salt

12      oz. medium (31/35) shrimps, peeled and deveined

3        garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press

1        medium shallots, minced (about 3 Tbsp)

1        red Thai chili pepper*, minced

2        Tbsp dried shrimp, chopped fine (optional)

6        Tbsp chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
3        cups bean sprout

3        medium scallions, green parts only, sliced thin on sharp bias

1/4     cup loosely packed cilantro leaves (optional)

Directions:  

• Making sauce:
1. Rehydrate tamarind paste by soaking it in 3/4 cup boiling water for about 10 mins.  Strain it through a strainer, pushing the pulp fibers to squeeze out the juice.  
2. Mix fish sauce, rice vinegar, sugar and 2 Tbsp oil with the tamarind extract. Set it aside.   

• Preparing rice noodle and eggs:  
1. Soak the rice sticks in hot tap water (not boiling) for 20mins, until they are softened and limp but not fully tendered. Drain and set aside
2. Beat eggs with 1/8 tsp salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

•  Stir-fry:
1. Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a 12" skillet over high heat until hot but not smoking, about 2 mins. Add shrimps and sprinkle 1/8 tsp salt on the shrimps.  Cook, toss occasionally, until shrimps turned pink and opaque with brown edges, about 2 to 3 mins. Remove the shrimps and set aside.
2. Add 1 Tbsp oil to skillet. Add garlic, shallot and chili pepper. Cook over medium heat, stir continuously, until fragrant, about 1 min, add eggs to skillet and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until scrambled and barely moist, about 20 sec. Add noodles, dried shrimps, toss with tong or 2 wooden spoons to combine. Pour fish sauce mixture over noodles, increase heat to high, and continue to toss all the ingredients with the sauce. 
3. Add 1/4 cup peanuts, bean sprouts, all but 1/4 cup scallions, and cooked shrimps over noodles. Continue to cook and toss, until noodles are tender. , about 2 mins.
4. Dish out the noodles. Sprinkle remaining peanuts, scallions and cilantro on top.  Serve immediately. 

*Kitchen notes: 

• The tamarind paste I bought came in a plastic package and was marked "Product of Thailand". You can buy it in most Asian stores.  If you cannot find tamarind paste, you can substitute it with 1/3 cup lime juice according to Cook's Illustrated although I never tried this before.  The tamarind gives the dish a distinct sour flavor that I think is hard to replace with any substitution.
• The rice stick I used was also came from Thailand. They came in S, M, and L size. I use M most of the time, but this time I used L which is about 1/4" wide. 
• In the original recipe, 3/4 tsp of cayenne pepper is used in place of the thai chili pepper. You can add the cayenne to the fish sauce mixture if using.  

Recipe:  Mango Smoothie

Ingredients:
 2      ripe mango
1/2    ripe banana
Some milk (2%)

Directions:
Coarsely chopped mango and banana.  Add milk. Process with a regular or hand held blender until smooth. Adjust consistency with amount of milk.  You can start with 1 cup milk first and add more if you want the drink to be less thick. 

Salmon Teriyaki and Miso Soup

I do not think that we have enough fish consumed in our diet. Don't know why.  May be because I grew up in Hong Kong where fish were bought fresh, fresh in the sense that they were alive in the fish tank and killed by fish monger immediately after you bought it. So, I was a bit turned off by all the frozen or previously-frozen fish fillets that sell at the supermarket here. But, we got to adapt to and make the best out of what we have. As we have an abundance supply of salmon here and it is one of the most flavorful fish, I always like to try new ways of cooking it.  Teriyaki salmon is one of my favorite salmon recipe.

This is a quick and healthy dinner. I always make the teriyaki sauce ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It can last for a few weeks. Besides salmon, I also use the sauce on grilled or broiled chicken thighs and on vegetable.

Recipe:  Salmon Teriyaki

Teriyaki sauce recipe was adapted from Cooks Illustrated Magazine

Ingredients for the sauce

1/2     cup soy sauce

1/2     cup sugar

1        tsp grated fresh ginger

1        clove garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press

2        Tbsp mirin

1/2     tsp cornstarch

Other ingredients:

1       salmon fillet, about 6 to 8oz, 1/2 to 3/4" thick

1       Tbsp canola oil

Salt and pepper

Directions:

For the sauce:

1. Put soy sauce, sugar, grated ginger, minced garlic in a small saucepan.  In a small bowl, mix mirin with cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved with no large lumps. Stir cornstarch mixture into the saucepan.  Bring the mixture the a boil over medium heat and then reduce heat to low for simmering. Stir occasionally and cook until the mixture is thickened, about 5 to 7 mins. Adjust consistency of the sauce to your preference by adjusting the simmering time.

For the salmon:

                           Pan-fry skin-side down first                                        Flip over when the skin is crispy and golden brown

1. I like eating the skin as well. So, I usually season both sides of the fillet with salt and pepper.
2. Add oil to the cast iron pan, swirl to coat the pan.  Heat oil over medium heat until it is hot but not smoking.  Put fish fillet in the pan, skin side down. Pan fry the fish for about 3 to 4 mins (depending on the thickness of the fillet) until the skin is golden brown.  Flip over the fish, pan fry the flesh side for another 2 to 3 mins, until golden brown. Remove fish from the pan and pour about 1 Tbsp of teriyiki sauce on top of the fish.  Serve.   

To make it a complete Japanese meal, besides serving the teriyaki salmon with rice, I also like making miso soup.  It is so easy to make miso soup when you have the right ingredients in your pantry and it is so much better than the over-salty soup in the average Japanese restaurant.  

Kitchen notes:  

• Red miso is stronger and saltier in flavor while white miso is milder.  I like to mix both of them.  You can pick either one to suit your taste.
• Using bonito powder to make the dashi soup base is a short cut step. Since I found out that even my Japanese sister-in-law is doing it this way, I did not bother making the soup base from scratch. But someday I will try!

                                               Clockwise from upper left: Red and white miso paste, bonito stock
                                                          powder, yummy miso soup, dried wakame seaweeds

Recipe:  Miso Soup

Ingredients:

3        cup water

1/2     package of bonito powder

1/2     package of soft or medium firm tofu, cubed

4-5    shiitake mushroom, sliced

1        Tbsp red miso paste

1         Tbsp white miso paste

A handful of dry seaweed (I used wakame seaweeds)

Directions:

1. Add bonito powder to water.  Bring water to a boil over medium heat. Add tofu and mushroom, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Add miso paste.  Stir occasionally and simmer until miso paste is dissolved, about 2 to 3 mins.  Add dry seaweed, cover and simmer for another 1 to 2 mins, until seaweeds are softened.  Serve hot.

Linguine with Clam Sauce

Sometimes the lazy bugs just creep all over me.  Over the Easter long weekend, we did not do our scheduled spring clean up, we did not fix our desperate looking plants in the front yard, we did not go for long walks with Yogi. I did not even have to cook.  My MIL  made a wonderful Easter dinner, as usual. And we had turkey leftover for a few meals. Finally getting tired of the leftover, we had to cook something, but no one wanted to go for grocery shopping. We took a look at what we had in the pantry, we found canned clams.  Great!  N likes clams sauce pasta,  he even likes to cook it himself. So,  this time N was the master chef and I was the sous chef.

 The recipe is loosely based on the one in The Best Recipe.  But after we made it so many times, we modified the ingredients to what we had on hand and we made it our own way. The original recipe is using fresh clams, which we sometimes use, and of course it makes a difference in taste.  But the grocery store in our neighborhood does not have fresh clams. So, we do use canned clams quite often.  I like that this is a light recipe with no cream or butter, but there is enough yummy taste with the use of the clam juice.

Recipe:  Linguine with Clam Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1       can clams, with juice

1       can clams nectar

1/2    cup dry white wine

         pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes

1/4    cup extra-virgin olive oil

3       medium garlic cloves, minced

2       plum tomatoes, seeded and minced

1       lb linguine, or spaghetti

1/2    cup freash pasley, chopped

Directions:

1.  Boil 4 quarts water in a large pot. Add 1 Tbsp salt to the water.
2. In a 10 to 12" skillet, bring the juice from the canned clams, the clams nectar and the white wine, a pinch of cayenne to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium and let it simmer, until the juice is reduced to about 1 1/2 cup, about 10 to 15 mins. Remove the juice from the pan, set it aside.
3. Heat oil and garlic over medium low heat until garlic is fragrant, about 2 to 3 mins. Add tomatoes, increase heat to high and saute until tomatoes soften, about 2 mins.  Add the canned claims, and the clam juice back to the pan.  Cook until the liquid is reduced but there is sufficient for the pasta.  
4. Add pasta to boiling water.  Cook until the pasta is al dente or softened to the degree that you like, around 7 to 9 mins.  Drain pasta.  Add the clams and the liquid to the pasta. Stir in parsley and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese (optional) on top when served.