Braised Mushrooms on Salmon

At a lower cost, it makes sense to buy a whole salmon instead of salmon pieces.  Having the fish cleaned and packed neatly into several smaller boxes was an added benefit.

With some salmon to spare, the Swallow searched her store of salmon recipes.  Finding a recipe which required ingredients easily found in her kitchen, she decided to cook the dish for dinner.  She had second thoughts, however, when she read that the salmon had to be deep-fried until golden brown.  She could literally feel the oil just oozing out from her skin.  This was one recipe that demanded a modification, or else it would go straight into the dustbin!

Since recycling is her usual mode of operation and although she was busy with preparation for her church's Bible Camp in June, the Swallow decided to modify this recipe on an urgent basis.  The modified dish is easy to produce, and many non-essential steps were also discarded along the way.

BRAISED MUSHROOMS ON SALMON (serves 4)

Ingredients

• 600g salmon fillet, cut into 4 pieces
• 100g black mushrooms
• 100g spring onions, cut into 3 cm pieces
• 1 piece thumb-sized ginger, sliced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 50ml light soya sauce
• water

Method

1. Soak mushrooms in enough water until slightly softened. Rinse the mushrooms. Drain and discard water. Soak the mushrooms again with water. When the mushrooms are completely softened, remove the mushrooms from the water. Set aside 250ml of water for later. Slice the mushrooms.
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat for a little while. Add salmon pieces, skin side down first. Depending on the thickness of the salmon, pan-fry the salmon pieces for about 4 minutes on each side, until they are cooked.
3. Meanwhile, mix salt, sugar, cornflour and light soya sauce together in a bowl. Set aside.
4. When the salmon pieces are ready, remove them from the oil and place them on a serving dish. Using the oil from the salmon pieces, add the sliced mushrooms, spring onions and ginger into the frying pan. Stir-fry over medium heat for about 1 minute.
5. Add the mushroom water and the seasoning mixture into the mushroom mixture. Lower heat and simmer for about 3 minutes. Season to taste. Pour the mushroom mixture over the salmon pieces. Serve hot with rice.

A New Gadget

The Swallow is writing this post from her new iPad.

The new gadget came under the guise of an early Mother's Day gift cum Father's Day gift. It had taken them all this time since the first iPad was launched before making a decision. It was only after witnessing the many uses of the iPad which far outweighed their fears that they took the plunge of getting one.

There were many missed opportunities for writing over the past couple of months when deep thoughts came at odd moments. Moments when she was doing the laundry. Moments when the desktop computer was switched off. Moments of busyness which kept her from logging into her blog. Maybe with a software called Pages installed into her new gadget, these missed opportunities will be of the past? Let's wait and see...

When this new gadget was bought, guess who were the more excited ones in the nest? The young ones of course! Their excitement was only slightly dimmed when they realised that their access to this gadget was bound by limits and parental permission. Will they be distracted with this gadget in the months ahead? The Swallow and her mate hope that by looking to their Lord God for help and wisdom, this will not happen...