Salmon with Sesame and Ginger

Salmon, salmon, salmon. Its not only good for you, but also easy and quick to put together for dinner. I have previously tried out Orange and Ginger Salmon; but for a bit of an Asian flair here is Sesame and Ginger Salmon. Served with a bit of rice, it makes for a lovely light and easy dinner.

Yes, you can have dinner ready in 20 minutes.

For two servings, you will need:

• One tablespoon of sesame seeds
• One half-palm size of ginger* (or slightly less if you use ginger powder, minced ginger, etc)
• About two or three tablespoons of soy sauce
• One teaspoon of sugar
• One tablespoon of oil

Of course, it would help of you had some salmon filets. I have served my salmon with rice, but I shall leave you to pick whatever side you would like to use.

Depending how much rice you are making, you might want to start the rice first. Check the package for instructions on how to cook your rice.

While the rice is cooking, start with your ginger. I used about a half-palm sized piece.

To retain some nice texture of ginger in the final dish, slice it into toothpick-long sticks. Don't fret about how thin or how thick to make them; it won't matter much at the end. I made three horizontal slices into the piece above before slicing it. You will also need one tablespoon of sesame seeds.

Lets start with the sesame seeds, roast them in a pan at medium-high heat with a bit of oil. You don't need too much oil as the sesame will ooze some of its own. Let your oil heat up well before adding the seeds.

You want to roast the sesame until it becomes nicely browned.

Now add your ginger slices.

Let the ginger become well browned, continuously stirring on high heat.

Now reduce the heat to a bit below medium and add your soy sauce.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar and stir it in to the sauce, now we will let it simmer and reduce for a few minutes.

It is now time to cook the salmon, but if you are making rice on the side you might want to check the progress. There is no point in having your salmon ready if your rice is still cooking. Assuming the rice is ready, or whatever side you are using, you can add your salmon to the grill.

For the salmon, a bit of oil in a frying pan and just leave the salmon a few minutes on each side ... you can check the progress as it cooks up the side of the salmon filet.

By the time your salmon is done, the sauce will have reduced enough and is ready to serve.

Plate your rice, add a salmon filet, and spoon the ginger and sesame on top of the fish. If you like, you can spoon some of the infused soy sauce on the rice.

There! Less than 20 minutes and such an easy way to prepare a healthy dinner.

*Tip: Don't throw away your ginger, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your ginger.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Orange Ginger Salmon with Roasted Red and Orange Peppers and Butternut Squash.

Phew, that was a long title.

Here is an easy dish to prepare, very light and refreshing, and it matches autumn.

I'm using red and orange bell peppers (or capsicum, if you prefer) along with some butternut squash, because I think they make a lovely accompaniment, based not only on colour but also on their slight sweetness, which offsets the ginger and orange in the salmon.

For two people, you will need:

• 2 filets of salmon
• 2 oranges
• A piece of ginger root* about as long as your little (or "pinky") finger, peeled. Use ginger powder if you prefer, or ginger paste from a bottle. Nobody is judging.
• 1 red and 1 orange pepper; or any combination you wish. Don't use green, the taste won't go well with the rest.
• Butternet Squash; I got two packets of cubed squash, about a handful each.

Begin by thinly slicing the peppers. I like them in long strips. Feel free to dice them up as you like.

Next, arrange them on a pre-heated baking tray, along with the cubed butternut squash, and drizzle some juice from one of the oranges. I just love the colour combination already!

Toss this in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about as long as it takes to make the salmon. If that makes you nervous, then lets say roughly 15 minutes, you can keep checking on it if you like.

The next step is to chop up the ginger. The picture below is not to show you how much ginger I used, rather how I chop my ginger. First, I cut the ginger piece I want to use, then I slice it in half to make it easier to manage. I then peel the ginger piece and slice it into "matchsticks". This makes it much easier to chop them into small cubes, then I finely dice them up further.

Raw ginger is really sharp, and we want to soften it a bit before putting it on our salmon. So I added it to a pan with a bit of olive oil to let it cook.

For the orange rind, I just use a grater. Some people like to peel the skin and finely chop it up. Either way works just fine.

Once the ginger is browned in the pan, add the rind of both oranges directly in with the ginger and mix them up. The orange helps to take that edge of the ginger without losing its own identity. The two go quite well together really, and I now I'm imagining other orange-ginger combinations ... stay tuned!

Next, squeeze out about two tablespoons worth of the juices from both oranges into the pan. When you add the juice, you want to be ready to toss the ginger and orange rind around so that they can absorb the juice, or it will just all sizzle away. It might make it easier to squeeze the orange into a cup, then pour the juice in.

Now reduce the heat and let this sit and absorb all the flavours. I added a bit of salt and pepper as well, but they aren't absolutely necessary.

We are ready to grill that salmon. Add a bit of oil to your griddle or any pan you like, the most important part is that you wait for it to become quite hot before you add your salmon, your salmon should sizzle when you place it in the pan.

If your salmon has skin, take your knife and cut some slits into the skin, then add it to the pan skin-side down.

The fun thing about cooking salmon is watching the heat cook the salmon, and seeing the salmon turn light pink up the side. When it is about halfway up the salmon, flip them.

About now, it should be time to get the vegetables out of the oven, we are almost ready to plate.

Add a bit of butter to your ginger and orange topping and stir it in.

Finally, plate the salmon and vegetables, and spread the orange-ginger on top of the salmon. Thats it!

You might have noticed that I did not season the vegetables at all. I personally feel that the wonderful flavours of the bell peppers and squash should stay just as they are, but feel free to season as you like.

*Tip: Don't throw away your ginger, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your ginger.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Assortment of Tartlets

For a fun appetizer, snack, or a light dinner if you so wish, this is an assortment of tartlets. Of course, you could only do one of these tartlets if you like.

The tartlets we are going to make here are Salmon with Crème Fraîche and Sun-dried Tomatoes* with Goat Cheese. We will use smoked salmon and tinned sun-dried tomatoes, so it is really easy to prepare.

While preparing the tartlets, start preheating your oven to about 175C (350F).

If you have an oven tray, preheat the oven tray in the oven as well.

We start with the pastry; you can buy pastry dough at the supermarket and you just have to unroll it. I like to further thin it just a bit; you will have to experiment with the dough you find in the supermarket. You can use a drinking glass or another round thing to cut out your pastry.

I used a package of smoked salmon and sliced it up to make it easier to arrange the salmon on the pastry.

Place the salmon in a little heap on the pastry circle and sprinkle on some chives, I just used dried chives from a spice jar.

For the sun-dried tomatoes, I place them so that they open up on the top (see the picture for a better explanation).

And in this little pocket, I place the goat cheese. Now, I'm using a goat cheese spread, which I formed into a little ball. You can do it which ever way you like.

Finally, crinkle up the edges of the pastry; almost as if you are folding the edges in just a little bit. Don't sweat it too much, it does not have to be perfect.

Now we are ready to bake! Place the pastries in the oven on the tray for about 15 minutes; but keep checking in on them. (The pastries on the right are Croissants with Ham and Swiss).

And after 15 minutes or so, your crust should be nicely browned and raised, carefully take the tray out of the oven and plate the tartlets.

Finally, drop a dollop of crème fraîche on the salmon tartlets and drizzle some honey on the sundried tomato tartlets and they are ready to eat!

I love doing these tartlets for a light dinner because, as you saw, it is very easy to do and it has quite a nice mix of textures.

*Tip: Don't throw away your sun-dried tomatoes, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your sun-dried tomatoes.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Salmon and Goat Cheese Tartlet

This easy to make tartlet is a great way to use up any leftover pastry crust from making quiche, or just because its summer. Its especially good on a Sunday.

As promised, its easy too. For two people, I made eight lil' ones. You can make as many as you like, but this recipe is for eight.

You probably want some Salmon to make Salmon tartlets, one filet (100g) is more than enough. Oh, and some goat cheese, when you read the rest of this recipe you will get an idea of how much you need. I come from a school of thought which believes one can never have too much goat cheese, so just get a bunch and use whatever you need on these tarts, and then reward yourself by eating the rest with a drizzle of honey.

I like to top them off with some chives, if you get fresh ones then good for you. I just used chives from a spice bottle. I also like to drizzle the whole thing with a bit of honey, so have some honey laying around the house. No, not THAT way! The kind from bees, silly.

Right! To the Salmon!

We are first going to cook the salmon fillet, preheat your oven to 175 C ( 350 F). On a piece of aluminum foil, place your salmon fillet and gently poke it a bit with a fork, then drizzle some honey over it and rub that honey in. Don't worry about too much or too little, I promise you it won't mess it up as long as you don't drench the salmon in honey.

Now wrap the salmon in that foil so it is all covered up and pop it in the oven, it will take hardly any time to cook and we can prepare the crust meanwhile.

If you're using ready made pie crust, then you just need to unroll it, perhaps consider thinning it just a bit. Its really not a big deal if you don't want to thin it out. If you're making your own pie crust, then, well, you clearly know what you're doing.

Now, take a drinking glass or something to cut out the circle shapes and cut out your crusts. You can just ball up the remaining dough, roll it flat, and cut some more. If you bought the pre-made crust, it probably came on a baking sheet, I keep my dough circles back on this sheet.

By about now, the salmon ought to be done, take it out of the oven and check that it is nicely pink. If it isn't, put it back for a bit, but take it out within a minute and check again; don't let it dry out.

Go ahead, take a fork and take a bite of your honey glazed salmon ... good isn't it? Well, make honey glazed salmon another time, now its time for salmon tartlets! What we are going to do now is to use a fork and pick on the salmon until is is in flakes, your salmon should flake up pretty easily.

At this stage, if you have a cat, best to lock him/her out of the kitchen.

Now it is time to assemble; place a few flakes of salmon on each circle of dough, top of off with a bit of goat cheese and then some bits of chives. You can drizzle some honey around the salmon if you like, or save it for later. If you want to make this into a "purse" type tart, you just pick up the edges and pinch them together as in the one on the left in this picture.

Now carefully put them in the oven.

And after 10 minutes or so; they should be nicely browned. As you can see, my tarts opened up. This is fine, if my dough had been a bit thinner, they might have stayed closed.

Now transfer them to a plate, and if you didn't already add honey earlier, this is a good time to drizzle some honey over them.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki