Second Annual Salmon of the Year Award

Looking at a green tea bag string hang over the edge of your fry pan – the bag itself simmering in soy sauce, water and fresh peeled ginger – is an unusual sight, but well worthwhile, as the green tea adds just a dash of depth to this interesting approach to cooking salmon.  As I learned last year for my salmon of the year award winner soy and maple salmon, cutting your filets in short stacks (4 oz), really helps in the process of keeping some uniformity in cooking and consistency.   Green tea, soy and ginger is the just the beginning for this recipe though.  The crispness, healthiness and the green-ness ends up being impressive visually as well.

Scallions are called for in the simmering sauce; then it's broccoli florets and edamame.  Cilantro is asked for, but we usually skip this common ingredient when it shows up in the books mainly because nobody here likes it.  Finishing touches call for pepitas, which are just pumpkin seeds, and all to be set over a bed of quinoa, a beady cereal-like grain

that is considered another one of those super foods, high in fiber and nutrients.  Unlike salmon filets broiled, this sort of fry pan boil with lid leaves the filet so moist because it takes on the intermingling flavors of the tea, soy and ginger steam.  Although this recipe shows up in what is called the "Weeknight Cooking" section of the Food Network magazine because it is supposed to be simple and healthy, I can't help but think it is a dedication to the kind of fusion recipe that combines Pacific Northwest (Seattle) and Asian influences.  To think that the generally hurried weeknight cooker can capture this kind of almost restaurant-style approach to an entree shows how far the possibilities of domestic cooking has come.