Sesame Salmon with Oriental Sweet Potato Mash

The  heat continued during a week that also featured a memorable and inspirational meet up with a friend I first met at uni nearly seventeen years ago. It was our first meet up for nearly five years. Having been energised by some positive, different and innovative perspectives forged during our meeting, I decided to try a new twist on a traditional fish dish.

I first became aware of Salmon as a viable main course dish through adverts on the television during the early nineties for recipes involving Salmon Steaks served with a side of Watercress and Yogurt complimented by Roast Potatoes. My usual method for preparing Salmon often revolved around this type of recipe.

However for today's blog recipe I gave proceedings a more Oriental Twist by making a Salmon Fillet with Sesame Seeds, Broccoli Shoots and Sweet Potato Mash.

Partly as the result of a wonderful trip to the North Country towards the end of June for a friend's birthday party, I had been motivated to acquire a number of albums by artists whose work I was largely unfamiliar with. One of the albums in question was Nic Jones' final album from 1980 called "Penguin Eggs". Jones was a dyed in the wool traditional folk artist whose career was sadly cut short in 1982 by a near fatal car crash. At least "Penguin Eggs" saw him take an extended sabbatical from the music business on a real high.

The pick tracks on the album include "Canadee I-O", the arrangement of which Bob Dylan borrowed for his take on the song on his measured 1992 record "Good as I been to You". Other top drawer numbers include "The Humpback Whale" and "The Little Pot Stove".

The ingredients for this dish are as follows:

Ingredients for the Sweet Potato Mash 

1 Sweet Potato with the skin kept on but any crunchy bits cut out.
A palm sized piece of fresh Root Ginger peeled and then diced.
A Red Pepper, de-cored, de-seeded, topped, tailed and sliced thinly.
5 Spring Onions, topped, tailed and sliced thinly.
1 Bird's Eye Chili cut into very small pieces.
1 tablespoon of Sesame Seeds.
1 tablespoon of sweet Soy Sauce.
Sesame Oil to fry the above ingredients.
1 teaspoon of Honey
1 Lime cut into 5 slices and de-seeded.

Ingredients for the Sesame Salmon 

1.Fillet of Salmon
5 shoots of miniature Sprouting Broccoli.
1 teaspoon of Sesame Seeds.

The method to make this recipe is:

Sweet Potato Mash 

1. Shallow fry in a Le Cresceut in the Sesame Oil on a medium heat the Ginger,  Pepper, Spring Onions and Birds Eye Chili for five minutes.

2. Add the Sweet Potato Pieces, Soy Sauce, Sesame Seeds, Lime Pieces and Honey and mix these together with the other ingredients.

3. Sweat all the above ingredients on a medium heat for twenty-five minutes in the Le Cresceut. Do make sure to stir them regularly to avoid them sticking to the bottom of the dish and burning.

4. Remove the Limes and mash the other ingredients together.

Sesame Salmon 

1. Cover the Salmon Fillet in the Sesame Seeds and wrap it loosely in a foil parcel with the Sprouting Broccoli.

2. Bake in the Oven on Gas Mark 5 for 23 minutes.

I served the meal by using the Broccoli  to frame the Salmon Fillets and I book-ended them with the mash. The Sesame Oil gave the mash a taste of nuts while keeping the skin on the Sweet Potatoes gave it a very flavoursome texture. The Ginger, Lime and lone Chili blended well too.

The Salmon meanwhile had its usual damp and lush taste that was enhanced by the Sesame Seeds. Some like their Salmon fried or grilled, however I find this makes it too dry and it loses the great taste it retains when cooked in the oven.

The Broccoli I used came from Kenya and was more tender and had a tasteful, salty flavour that our native Broccoli often lacks. It added yet another new and innovative taste to the dish.

Frame by Frame- the Salmon Fillet is framed by the Broccoli Stalks