Week 5 - Sesame soy salmon and vegetables with coconut rice - The Medicinal Chef

February 7, 2020

Quick and healthy this week! The winning book of 5th episode of our #fridaycookbookproject was Dale Pinnock’s The Medicinal Chef and I loved it! I started with 3 healthy eating cookbooks and any of them would work for me and the other two will definitely be brought back but for now, as we don’t eat as much fish as we should, I opted for a delicious salmon recipe made with some beautiful wild caught King Salmon. I’ll definitely be making this again, also for the amazing, creamy coconut rice and crispy sautéed veggies. Highly recommended combination!

The cookbook I have here at home is in Czech, I brought it with me when I moved out here. It’s full recipes particularly created to support the health of various organs and organ systems. This one really spoke to me this week, being full of beneficial fats and vitamins, all good for the heart and circulation, nerves, skin, joints and bones, respiratory system and many other things. And it was really good for my taste buds, too, so i think we have got ourselves a win-win kind of a situation!

I also remember cooking the Green soup from the book some time ago and it was amazing. But as I challenged myself here, I am cooking recipes that are unknown to me, in order to learn something new along with you in this project. Let’s do it! Here’s my interpretation of Dale’s recipe.

Get a beautiful slab of wild caught salmon, a bit less than 1 lb for 2 portions. Marinate it for at least an hour in a mixture of 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce and 1 tsp honey in the fridge. In the meantime, get the awesome coconut rice ready! Use 1 cup organic brown basmati rice, rinse it well in a collander and then transfer it to a pot. Stir in a bit of salt and add just enough boiling water to cover the rice. Cook with a lid on until there is no more water and then start adding coconut milk. It was hard for me to believe the whole can (400 ml/13.66 fl oz) would go in there but it really does, but add it in gradually, in about 5 parts, once it’s getting too dry. You may even need to add a bit more water in the end, if all the coconut milk is already in and the rice still isn’t soft. Mine took quite a while, maybe about 45-55 minutes, but things cook a bit slower up here in Denver.

While the rice is cooking, prep your vegetables. Wash 1 smallish zucchini and 1 carrot. You want to get out your vegetable peeler and using that, slice them into long ribbons. Cut 1/2 red onion into half circles. Prepare a big handful or more of baby spinach. Take the salmon out of the fridge pat it sort of dry using a paper towel.

When the rice is done cooking, stir in 2 tbsp dried unsweetened shredded coconut and set it aside. Get your non-stick pan and heat it up with 1 tbsp olive oil. Cut the salmon slab in half and sautée it for about 6 minutes, starting on the skin side, then 2 more minutes once you flip it. The time really depends on how you like your salmon cooked and how thick it is. Mine was not thin and I like it pretty juicy inside (my husband called my piece seared but I would say more like medium, and he cooked his piece for another 3 or for minutes). While this is happening and smelling awesome, give your vegetable ribbons and onion a quick sauté in another pan with a bit of toasted sesame oil and a squirt of soy sauce. You can add a sliced clove of garlic, too, but this time i did not. Using kitchen tongs, keep fluffing and turning it, keeping the 3 parts separate if your want them looking more neat and keeping their color. But don’t go over 3 minutes or so, it’s really fast because the veggies are sliced so thinly and this way they keep their delicious crisp texture which goes great with the flaky salmon and creamy rice. Then throw in your spinach and let it just get wilted. Aaaaand we are done, friends!

Serve it right away (or better, after you take a quick photo, post it and tag me @gourmet.photographer so I can share it in my stories!) and enjoy. Believe me, it will make a great, healthy and delicious feel-good dinner!

*Recipe is inspired by Dale Pinnock’s cookbook The Medicinal Chef.