Challenge of the Week: Panfried Salmon with Lemon Butter served with Roasted Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes

I was just talking to Jk the other day and started commenting on how much I love asparagus. He told me how much he hated them (although never having tried them) as a child and when he finally gathered up the courage to try them when he was older and wiser, he found out that he actually really likes them!

So because of my sudden craving for asparagus, while grocery shopping with Ny, I bought a bunch on a whim and decided to splurge a little and got two fillets of Wild Sockeye Salmon and decided on Lemon Butter Panfried Salmon with Roasted Asparagus (the mashed potatoes were an afterthought as I realized that Jk would probably appreciate some carbs in a meal being the manual worker he is :P)

Panfried Salmon with Lemon Butter

Ingredients:

2 fillets of salmon (salmon steaks work too:))

1/4 cup butter

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

4 tbsp lemon juice

salt

pepper (I love pepper so I tend to add more)

Method:

1- Melt butter in pan and saute garlic. After about 1 1/2 mins, add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for about 4 minutes and transfer into a small bowl.

2- Drizzle some lemon butter on salmon and put into the hot pan.

3- VERY IMPORTANT: pan should already be hot and once the fish is placed in the pan, do not move or touch it too much as this will spoil the fish (flakes of fish will come apart and presentation wise, it'll be unpresentable) Wait about 5 minutes then gingerly lift and check to see if fish is a bit browned (if it is then it's ready for turning) Repeat the same for the other side.

4- Arrange on plate with Roasted Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes and drizzle some more lemon butter before serving.

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

10 stalks of asparagus (5 each)

Canola Oil (Olive oil or any other vegetable oil should be good)

Salt

Pepper

Method:

1- Chop off the bottom of the asparagus (which is the tough part).

2- Preheat Oven to 400F.

3- Rinse in cold water (I was taught to always wash produce before cooking them) and either drip dry them in a colander or pat them down with a kitchen towel.

4- Arrange on a baking tray and drizzle with oil, then sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.

5- Pop them into the over for 10 minutes and voila! Roasted Asparagus :)

The lemon butter went well with the sweet taste of the fresh salmon and the nutty aromatic taste of the heads of the asparaguses were just ah-mazing!

Bon Apetite ;)

Challenge of the Week: Tonkotsu Ramen and Chasu [Pt 2]

So, this report has not been as prompt as I hope it would be... but here's my verdict of the tonkatsu ramen and chasu challenge:

Tonkatsu Base:

They're not kidding when they tell you that the fatback is VERY important... chewy bits of fats was what ruined my soup... but otherwise, it was great :)

Chasu:

Fabulous! Brought Jk to Kintaro and he loved their soup better but thought that their Chasu couldn't compare to mine :)

The fatback was substituted with normal fat not because I was being cheap (although I jumped for joy when I found that fat is free!) The West Coast of Canada at least seem to be very into the 'healthy' scene and don't really carry fatback or lardon at grocery stores and why would they when butchers didn't even understand me when I asked them for fatback/lardons. Disappointment.

The 10 hours or so put into this little challenge of mine was all in all well worth the effort.. next time though, more pork hocks :)

Chow ;)