FOODjimoto: Maple-Miso Dijon Salmon

Have you seen Closet Cooking? Of course you have.

Kevin Lynch has a great website, Closet Cooking, and chronicles his "adventures with food in search of flavour," cooking in a closet-sized kitchen. He takes great photos, too. His photo of his Maple-Miso Dijon Salmon inspired me to try his recipe and presentation--it came out so delicious that my husband exclaimed, "This is SO much better than a restaurant!"

I cooked this in the oven--it cooked fast, only ten minutes at 400ºF.

I served my salmon on a bed of oven-roasted asparagus and some micro-greens. Kevin served his on roasted beets and sauteed beet greens with some pea sprouts for garnish. When my dad grows beets again, I'm going to try that!

My husband prefers to have a bowl of rice with fish--are there any other Japanese-Americans out there that don't think a meal is complete without rice?

Maple-Miso Dijon Salmon

recipe from Closet Cooking by Kevin Lynch

Ingredients:

4 (6 ounce) salmon fillets

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons grainy mustard

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 tablespoon white miso paste

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 clove garlic, grated

Directions:

1. Marinate the salmon in the mixture of the maple syrup, mustards, miso, vinegar, soy sauce and garlic for at least 30 minutes.

2. Place the salmon on a baking dish and bake in a preheated 400ºF oven until the salmon just starts to flake easily, about 10 minutes. (For the last two minutes I put the salmon under the broiler for color.)

I didn't have any rice vinegar, so I used white wine vinegar. The amount of marinade will cover a small package of salmon from Costco. The leftover salmon tasted just as delicious the next day on salad--and again, just as the first day, my husband remarked on how tasty it was!

Itadakimasu!

***

This is my mom, Alice.

You met her in my Stuffed Peppers with Barley & Quinoa post.

She's the best mom--kind, patient, thoughtful and funny. She's also very talented. She taught me how to cook and sew, too. That took a LOT of patience!

Mom loves to grow things--she's got a green thumb.

Mom's also a little camera-shy, but is a good sport and models my boutique clothing--when I make her. That's my niece Leslie on the left--she's off to graduate school on the East Coast--we're all so proud of her!

My mom is funny--she makes me laugh when she fools around in front of the camera!

(Pretend you don't see this picture, Mom!)

My mom still takes care of me. She brings me flowers and vegetables to plant in my yard. I can't grow them as well as she (or my dad), but I have a little garden. Recently, she brought me some fall vegetables, and I planted them before the rain, so they're growing!

That's okra left from summer in the middle left. I didn't pull it out yet--it's still got some okra growing.

My mom says I need to pick them when they're not so big so they aren't tough.

This is kale.

Romaine

Cabbage

Cauliflower

The smell of cauliflower growing reminds me of fall and high school. Across the street from my high school, the Kiyan brothers had a big field where they grew vegetables. In the fall the whole school smelled like cauliflower--and in the spring it smelled like strawberries. It's a nice memory of Mr. Kiyan (either one, I thought they looked exactly the same), working the field on his tractor.

My little kaki--persimmon--tree is getting big and it's loaded with kaki this year! Time to get out the dehydrator and dry them!

Thank you, Mom, for the vegetable and flower plants and for taking good care of me even though I am old enough to be taking care of myself. And thank you, Dad, for always paying my way, even though I am old enough to pay for myself.

Love you, Mom!

Love you, Dad!

***