Pan Seared Chilli Soy-Marinated Salmon with Sesame Spinach

Finally! A horrible two weeks of deadlines after deadlines is over!

And to treat myself, I decided to slowly marinate a piece of salmon steak in spicy garlicky tamari and sesame oil for a couple of hours instead of my throw-it-all-together meals the past few days. The actual cooking and preparation time is still very short though, and there's nothing extremely unique or wow about this, but it's one of my favourite (comfort) flavour combinations.

Pan Seared Chilli Soy-Marinated Salmon

serves 1

Ingredients

1 piece salmon steak

1 tbsp coconut oil (or ghee or a mix with evoo, to fry)

Marinade

2 tsp soy sauce (naturally fermented and aged, I used tamari)

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 small clove garlic, grated

1 cm piece of ginger, grated

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp unrefined cane sugar or molasses

Method

1. Combine marinade ingredients and cover the salmon with it. Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours. Remove from marinade and bring to room temperature 20 min before cooking.

2. Over medium-high heat, add the oil in a pan and place the salmon into the hot pan. Don't keep poking it, or you won't get a nice sear. Salmon steaks are a bit trickier than the fillets because I can't see the colour change along the sides, but I give it an estimate of about 3 minutes before flipping over and letting it cook for another 2 min.

Sesame Spinach

Ingredients

2 big handfuls of spinach

2 tsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

Method

1. Heat the sesame oil in a pan and add the chopped garlic, stirring often till they get browned.

2. Meanwhile, wilt the spinach in boiling water or you can steam it. Refresh in cold water.

3. Toss with the garlic-infused sesame oil.

Sprinkle the toasted garlic all over the spinach and the salmon and serve with rice!

Salty spicy and sweet with the aroma of toasted sesame and garlic --Ah, happy (:

This is part of Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Slightly Indulgent Tue, Tue Night Supper Club.