Salmon

Finishing February in Food

Posted by Gary

Finishing February with much the same routine

Regular readers will know my routine. I’m one of those people who handles life better if I don’t have to think too much about things that shouldn’t require a lot of thought. So I like routines and finishing February was no different.

Before I get to the food, though, it was an odd week where I mentioned a dream about my maternal grandfather and then I shared a little about my family history. 

Monday and Tuesday evenings mean what for Yummy Lummy?

I hope you answered salmon!

Crispy skin pan-fried salmon with Hass avocado and beetroot coleslaw dressed with aioli Gary Lum
Crispy skin pan-fried salmon with Hass avocado and beetroot coleslaw dressed with aioli
Crispy skin pan-fried salmon with aioli and smoked cheddar cheese Gary Lum
Crispy skin pan-fried salmon with aioli and smoked cheddar cheese

Please do me a favour

I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the side bar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).

By subscribing you’ll receive a personalised e-mail from me and from time to time, apart from the blog post I’ll share something new, like my ideas for a cook book sometime this year.

Wednesday means chicken

Before I get to the chicken, Wednesday lunch meant Burger Wednesday at Urban Bean Espresso Bar and I enjoyed the Korean barbecue beef bulgogi (grilled marinated beef) burger with chips and aioli. 

#Humpday burger. Korean BBQ beef bulgogi (grilled marinated beef) with Asian slaw, aioli and UB chips Gary Lum
#Humpday burger. Korean BBQ beef bulgogi (grilled marinated beef) with Asian slaw, aioli and UB chips

I posted a status update on Wednesday afternoon that Wednesday meant chicken tonight and of course, I received comments that included references to the jar of stuff called “chicken tonight” which I’ve never used.

Hump day roast chicken wings on Coon cheesy bread with avocado, vegetables and lime zest Gary Lum
Hump day roast chicken wings on Coon cheesy bread with avocado, vegetables and lime zest
Vanilla ice cream with mint flake Gary Lum
Vanilla ice cream with mint flake

Thursday was all about hot and spicy Spam

Before I get to the Spam, for lunch because it was pay day I enjoyed the SHISH special from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It was delicious.

#payday S H I S H - P L A T E TIME Braised lamb, Greek pitta bread, Greek salad with a garlic tahini sauce on the lamb Gary Lum
#payday S H I S H – P L A T E TIME
Braised lamb, Greek pitta bread, Greek salad with a garlic tahini sauce on the lamb

I had half a tin of hot and spicy Spam left in the refrigerator and it needed to be eaten because I was going to spend the weekend in Brisbane. Some people would say unkindly that it wouldn’t matter because Spam can’t go off, but I’d like to remind the haters that Spam is food, it contains meat from the porcine shoulder as well as ham.

Hot and spicy pay day Spam with Coon cheese noodles and vegetables Gary Lum
Hot and spicy pay day Spam with Coon cheese noodles and vegetables

Friday was a cooking-free night

I was spending the weekend in Brisbane with my parents and daughters so Friday night’s dinner was on QF1554. It was a chicken and rice dish.

Chicken salad and rice Gary Lum
Chicken salad and rice

Of course, I spent Friday at the Canberra Hospital and for lunch, I had this dish which I think maybe a quiche but it could be called something else. It contained asparagus, mushroom, rice, cheese and egg. You could carve it.

Rice, egg, asparagus, mushroom, and cheese slice Gary Lum
Rice, egg, asparagus, mushroom, and cheese slice

Saturday lunch and dinner

I had a big day in food on Saturday. I took my youngest two daughters to Sandgate for fish and chips.

Larissa and Nicola with fish and chips at Sandgate Gary Lum Gary with fish and chips at Sandgate Gary Lum

I took everyone out to dinner on Saturday night to Hog’s Breath Café at Aspley to celebrate my youngest daughter turning sixteen.

Pork ribs with prime rib and mashed potato and pepper sauce at Hog’s Breath Café, Aspley
Coconut birthday cake Gary Lum
Coconut birthday cake

Sunday breakfast meant that I completed all the food groups in a weekend

So, if we count Friday night, I’ve eaten chicken, fish, calamari, beef (steak) and pork (ribs) so far.

For breakfast, Mum and Dad cooked a bacon (pork again) omelet and some lamb chops plus some scones. So that’s all five food groups in a weekend.

Lamb chops with bacon eggs and scones

How did I cope?

I think I need to fast for a while.

Final thoughts

This coming week will break my routine so strictly speaking I won’t be finishing February with my routine. I’m interstate on Monday, going out on Tuesday night and Wednesday is senate additional estimates hearings. Who knows what I’ll be eating on Wednesday.

Hopefully, I’ll be back to normal next week.

Bacon, tomato, avocado and cheese sandwich Gary Lum
Bacon, tomato, avocado and cheese sandwich

Can you do me another favour please

I’m sort of transitioning my blogging to balance between food blogging and light hearted ‘medical’ podcasting. Please check out the podcast at drgarylum.com/blog

You can also subscribe via iTunes and Stitcher

 

Sweet sweet tomatoes

Posted by Gary

Fresh sweet tomatoes are so much better than store bought

So, I come back from Delhi and a work friend gives me a bag of her fresh sweet tomatoes.

It’s so true that fresh is always best. These little tomatoes were so sweet and crisp and tasty. Last night I cooked them with my salmon and leftover prawn curry.

Salmon with curry prawns with pearl barley couscous and brown rice with white quinoa Sweet tomatoes Gary Lum
Salmon with curry prawns with pearl barley couscous and brown rice with white quinoa [click for a better view]
Tonight, I had them with crispy skin curry chilli salmon and a chilli jalapeño salad with fried shallots and lime zest. 

Crispy skin curry chilli salmon with fresh tomatoes, and a chilli jalapeño salad with fried shallots and lime zest. sweet tomatoes Gary Lum
Crispy skin curry chilli salmon with fresh tomatoes, and a chilli jalapeño salad with fried shallots and lime zest. [click on the photo for a better view]

Please do me a favour

I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the sidebar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).

Preparing tonight’s dinner

I got home from work and immediately started on the salad. In a metal bowl, I added some chopped iceberg lettuce, fried shallots, sliced spring onions, sliced red onion, red chillies, jalapeño peppers, the halved tomatoes, lime zest and some chunks of cream cheese.  

With the salad done I tossed some flour, curry powder and chilli flakes into the plastic bag with the salmon and shook it up to coat the salmon.

I heated up a small iron-based frying pan in my portable induction hob and sprayed it will a little olive oil. The salmon was tossed skin side down into the frying pan. The hot pan and the flour/curry coating got it nice and crispy. The salmon was flipped over when it was ready and a little butter was added. Don’t overcook the fish!

Juice from the lime, the hot butter and oil plus a little salt and maple syrup was used to dress the salad.

How did it taste?

My experience in India has convinced me that I need to add more spices to my food. Tonight, there were chilli flakes, curry powder, red chillies and jalapeño peppers.

The stand out component were the sweet tomatoes. They just popped. The salmon was very good too. Because avocado is so expensive now, I didn’t have any, so that’s where the cream cheese came into play. It worked well to give that smooth mouth feel.

Final thoughts

If you can get your hands on or your mouth around some fresh sweet tomatoes, do it. It’s well worth the effort.

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.

 

When Twitter confounds @NotQuiteNigella

Posted by Gary

On Sunday, Lorraine Elliott, aka, NotQuiteNigella, posted about “Salmon and Bear” in Zetland.

Her first food photograph on that NotQuiteNigella post (apart from a photograph of a deer mounted on a wall) was a salmon burger. I managed to beat all the fans of NQN and get the first comment in and mentioned I would make a salmon burger.

Well yesterday, I was thinking of said salmon burger. Being Monday and being a salmon day I pondered the burger and all the yeasty foods I’d enjoyed over the weekend. Should I go with more bread or just salmon and a salad?

Ask Twitter and your questions will be answered

So I asked Twitter. Salmon burger or salmon salad?

 


 

I received a 3:1 response, salad over a burger. It was also a three women to one man response with the bloke from England suggesting I make a salmon burger.

This is the link to the full Twitter conversation Have a read

Well, last night I made a quick and simple salmon salad.

Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad Gary Lum
Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad

Salmon burger

Tonight I still had a piece of salmon, so a burger it is.

Because my bread roll was three days old I thought I should toast it, and rather than just shoving it into my little benchtop oven for a browning, I put some olive oil into a frying pan, heated it up and then liberally coated one side of the bread roll with warm oil. I then took both halves off and allowed them to cool while I cleaned off the frying pan.

Lash that roll

Then I applied a good lashing of garlic aioli to each half of the bread roll. On the bottom half I then added some rings of red onion.

Fill the hole in the roll

I then built the sandwich with the salmon that I’d baked for 13 minutes at 200 °C in my benchtop oven, some crispy iceberg lettuce and a couple of slices of vine ripened tomato.

I added a pinch of curry powder to the tomato as well as a good grinding of black pepper.

Which is better?

The burger of course. What could be better than a burger?

Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli Gary Lum
Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli

Can anyone tell me what a quoll tastes like?

Do Canberra quolls taste better?

I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard Gary Lum
I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard

What do you think of when you see the word pussy?

 

Last night’s podcast was on pus. Go on, have a listen. Let me know what you think. You can also read it on the blog. 

 

Salmon ramen noodle curry

Posted by Gary

The thought process behind the Salmon ramen noodle curry

I started back at work today (Tuesday 03 January 2017) after some time off over the CNY break. I had some fresh salmon in the refrigerator and at about lunch time I began the usual process of wondering what I might cook for dinner. A ramen noodle dish began to emerge. 

I knew in the “shelf of shame” there was some coconut milk as well as some 3-minute noodles. In the refrigerator I had some asparagus and broccoli stalks for greens. To add some spice I had some pickled red and green chillies that I’d prepared on the weekend.

What could be easier than dicing the salmon with a sharp knife and making a simple meal for one.

The cooking process

I cooked the 3-minute ramen noodles by opening a packet into a bowl, emptying the flavour sachet and adding boiling water from a kettle. I stirred that around with a pair of chopsticks for a few minutes and then drained the ramen noodles.

I added the drained ramen noodles into an oiled (I use relatively cheap Coles brand olive oil) frying pan and turned up the heat constantly stirring so the noodles wouldn’t stick. After the noodles began to dry out a little and take on some colour, I added a small tin of coconut milk and kept stirring. My preferred stirring tool is a pair of chopsticks. They are perfect for stirring. I heard Matt Preston criticise wooden spoons recently in favour of silicon spatulas on the basis of hygiene. I hope he’s not critical of wooden chopsticks.

To the ramen noodles and coconut milk, I added the greens and the chillies and brought the liquid to a gentle simmer. Don’t bring it to a rolling (aka roiling) boil, you don’t want to split the coconut milk.

Once the liquid is simmering gently, added the diced salmon. Stir everything gently and keep simmering for about 5 minutes. By then the fish will be mostly cooked.

 

 

If you are carbohydrate loading, you could serve this on some red quinoa and brown rice but I think I carbohydrate peaked over the CNY break.

If you want, you can garnish with anything suitable. I used some spring onion I had in the refrigerator.

Salmon and ramen noodles curry with broccoli stalks and asparagus Gary Lum
Salmon and ramen noodles curry with broccoli stalks and asparagus

Social media

I regularly post food photographs to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you have friends stuck for ideas on cooking meals for one, please let them know about Yummy Lummy, that’s me!

And now for something completely different!

If you’re sitting on the toilet and want something of short duration to listen to, why not check out Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store. MFF is also on Stitcher so if you have an Android device, download the Stitcher app from the Google Play store and enjoy the show. I drop a show every Monday and Thursday evening at about 7 pm Canberra time (UTC+11 during DLS and UTC+10 from the first Sunday of April until the first Sunday of October).

 

Making a simple salmon and avocado sandwich

Posted by Gary

Making a simple salmon and avocado sandwich is so easy.  Just check out the video.  

If you’re interested in something different, check out my podcast at my other blog, if you listen to podcasts via iTunes you can get Medical Fun Facts there.