Special Edition and Tuesday Night Relaxing...

Special edition time!

(Yes I know we just talked Sunday, but I wanted to share this one with you because it moved me because its so good!)

Today was productive and after the day was done I was feeling like preparing a little Asian inspired dinner to go with a stack of comic books.  That's my thing, nice quiet house, some good food and a stack of comic books. 

I had recently seen Nigella Lawson prepare a Salmon dish on her show on the Cooking Channel, and that was on my mind most of the day and was the goal for dinner tonight.  First things first, I had to run up to A-1 Comics and get my fix of books, then on the way home I stopped by Whole Foods and got a pound of Salmon, and some fresh Spinach, everything else I needed I already had at the house.  So the menu for tonight's reading is Seared Salmon over Soy and Wasabi infused rice, along with some sauteed Spinach.  It's simple and quick to prepare, and fantastic for those times you just want to cool out and have some alone time to get some reading in or music or something creative.

The rice I was using called for preparation as you would Sushi rice, so first I needed to prepare the vinegar mixture.  A vinegar mixture is used in Sushi rice to add a little flavor to it.  I took a 1/4 cup of Sushi vinegar, 2 Teaspoons of Salt, and 1/4 cup of Sugar.  Put them all in a small pot and heat so it's hot, and dissolves but not so it's boiling.  After its hot set it aside or leave it on very low on the stove.  Before cooking the rice, I make sure to rinse it first.  What I do is put it in a glass bowl and fill the bowl full of cold water, the water will be cloudy at first, then rinse the rise, drain and repeat. Continue to do this until the water is clear, then let it sit for 15 minutes.  From there, since i was using 2 cups of rice, I put 2 cups of water in a pot and added the rice and brought to a boil, once its boiling reduce heat and let it cook until the water is gone.  Once its finished put the rice in a wide glass bowl and fan it out so it cools.  As it cools, pour the vinegar mixture over it and continue to fan it out so it cools evenly.

Right before preparing the rice I took my Salmon in let it marinade a Teriyaki marinade I picked up from Whole Foods, let it soak for about 20-30 minutes.  At that point pull out a wide pan or griddle if you have one, put a couple of drops of Olive Oil on it, and get it hot on medium-high heat and take your Salmon and lay it on the pan for about a minute, gets a nice sear on it.  Then turn it over and give the other side a sear for a minute as well.  From there place the Salmon on a cutting board and slice it into small strips and lay it over your rice.  Then I prepared some Wasabi infused Soy Sauce and poured that over the Salmon and rice....yeah baby!

At that point I prepared my Spinach.  Real simple, real quick, real tasty.  Take a pan, heat it and add some Olive Oil to it, then add some finely chopped Garlic and let that cook until it releases its flavors.  Then add your fresh Spinach and let that saute' slowly, stirring often, and as the Spinach gets tasty you will get that aromatic flavor in the air...yes!  After about 5 minutes your Spinach will be done and ready to go!

Now the meal is complete.  All I need is a big-ass mug of Iced Tea and my stack of comics and I'm set for the night! First on my stack of book..."Invincible" number 76. 

And as a side note, my buddy Amir, the film director, stopped by to talk about details of the latest project and I told him he picked the right night because I was creating in the kitchen tonight!  He had some of the Salmon over rice and the Spinach, and while he didn't make himself a TGP, he did hit up a second helping...  And let me say publicly here and now, and this is for my girl Susan over at the Susan Can Cook blog, in January I'm planning another Seafood Skewer night, and baby you are on the guest list!   

And with that, I take my leave and get my grub on and my reading in!  Try this one, you will not be disappointed!

Marc (Big Sexy)