Quickie Dinner A La Salmon

Salmon and Soba
Originally uploaded by eatzycath.

I am begining to discover that cooking for one can be really fun. With hubby away on a business trip, I can experiment to my heart's content without worrying about his food likes/dislikes. Pulled out Bill Granger's "Bill's Food" and saw this really simple recipe called 'Crispy-skinned salmon with fresh noodle salad and soy dressing'. The original recipe actually called for egg noodles and finely julienned cucumber and daikon radish, all of which I did not have in the kitchen (only had the salmon fillets). Missing ingredients were substituted with soba noodles and 'dou miao' (pea-shoots).

• brush salmon fillets with oil and season liberally with sea-salt and black pepper
• cook salmon on heated frying pan for 2 mins or so on each side
• prepare soy dressing by stirring together 1 tsp sesame oil, 4 tbsps soy sauce, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp caster sugar, and 4 tbsps lime juice (as I was cooking for one, the portions above may be a little different from the original recipe - do add or reduce according to taste)
• place cooked soba noodles on plate, add the cooked 'dou miao' and salmon fillets on top
• finally drizzle with soy dressing (as I wasn't quite into cold dressing, I heated the mixture in the frying pan for a very short while before I drizzled over the noodles and salmon)

This was really quite yummy, and somehow, sea-salt always gives that sudden and wonderful burst of crunchy saltiness on the tongue as one bites into the salmon fillets! The balsamic vinegar and lime juice with dissolved sugar gave a very Western twist to the Asian soy dressing - would this qualify as 'fusion'?