honey soy salmon with carrot & swede mash

This blog has been alive now for one full week. Eight and a half days to be precise. And I am still utterly floored that wordpress lets me do so. many. things. that blogger just does not. And also revelling in the fact that now that I am the proud owner of a blog about food, I have to, it’s now actually my duty to (and not just cos I want to, clearly) go out in search of everyday delicious goodies to share with the rest of the glutton world!

I still have my blogspot, which has been my personal shrink for the past five years. The therapeutic effects of verbal diarrhoea onto a qwerty keyboard is honestly second to none, and it doesn’t even matter if no real people read the damn thing. I get to vent, brag, day dream and blabber, and so long as the universe hears me, it is all worth while. 

So now I have two blogs, a corporate job (at which I spend my days staring at spreadsheets), an active social life (if that includes going out to restaurants and socialising with my babyback pork ribs), a man (and who said men don’t need attention – rubbish!), and that book that I just cannot put down.  My life is getting hectic.  At 6pm yesterday, I’m on the couch with my netbook, ready to write a post in blogspot. But for the first time in five years, I just didn’t feel like it. And why not? Because I have my new baby, and the other one? That one’s just, like, so 2008 (so help me God, I hope this doesn’t happen when I have real children).

I know it’s only been a week, but I’m already feeling the great divide between my old blog and I. And I know you’re probably thinking I’m over-dramatising this, just let it go, but I don’t know if it’s that easy. It really has been my fallback, the only one person thing that has been a consistent part of my life for the past five years, and it has never once told me (told me? I know, I need a real shrink) to stop partying so hard, save some money, or say don’t you dare order that second roti bom (not that this website would ever tell me to do that either!).  So I think I’ve got to let it down gently, I’ve got to let myself down gently.

At 7pm, still agonising over whether or not I should quit blogspot, I prescribed myself the world’s best tried and tested advice: stop thinking about it. So up I got, and mosied to the kitchen, where I distracted myself by chopping shallots, which in my opinion is the best garnish ever, to accompany two fresh juicy pieces of Scottish loch muir salmon, and viola! Dinner is served – honey soy salmon with carrot & swede mash.

Honey soy salmon with carrot & swede mash
2 x 130gram pieces of salmon fillet (skin optional)
1 bunch broccolini or bok choy, washed
2 medium swedes, cubed (or potatoes if you can’t find swede)
3 carrots, chopped
Butter
Milk
Cracked pepper
10 tablespoons kikkoman soy sauce*
4 tablespoons honey
Shallots, diced
1 teaspoon olive oil
Note: while the mash can be made ahead of the other parts of the meal, the fish, sauce and vegetables more or less have to be cooked at the same time to ensure they all stay warm when served, so good luck with the multitasking!
  1. Boil carrot and swede in a pot until soft, remove to bowl and mash. Add butter, milk and cracked pepper to taste. Leave aside.
  2. Add soy sauce to a small saucepan. Bring to boil.
  3. Once boiling, add honey and stir until dissolved. Taste to ensure it’s not too sweet or salty, just right.
  4. Heat olive oil in pan. When hot, add salmon pieces.
  5. Pan fry on medium heat for 4 minutes, turning once midway. This cooks the fish medium, so cook for longer to achieve well done.
  6. Bring a pot of water to boil and add broccolini. Boil until soft but crunchy. Drain.
  7. On serving plates, spoon mash onto one side of the plate, and arrange broccolini on the other. Place fish on top of the mash, and drizzle with honey soy sauce. Finish with chopped shallots.
Serves 2.
* I know I could use real measurements, but I normally don’t even measure so the fact that I used a spoon just for the purposes of this recipe is pretty phenomenal!

4 Thoughts on “honey soy salmon, come ease my troubles away

  1. chooken on June 6, 2009 at 1:11 pm said:

    I am going to read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on your recommendation, I am currently on a literary diet that consists soley of historical romance/fiction, so hopefully a taste of something new will push me out of my rut

  2. chooken on June 6, 2009 at 1:15 pm said:

    and just on a side note, I just don’t get shallots

  3. Hey chooken! Historical romance/fiction? How did you get onto that? I’m reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on recommendation too, and it’s addictive. Can’t wait to get onto the second book!

    Shallots rock, by the way. I’ll have to cook you something with shallots on day 🙂

  4. mmmm!! You cooked this for me once at ur Googe St place & it started by obsession with salmon. Thanks for that! I’ve never been able to make it as well as you tho 😉

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