Salmon
20101013:
This was my first time making salmon as well as the first time I finished a bottle of olive oil.
Steps I took:
Salmon: Defrosted salmon (.58 lbs at $11/lb). Turned the meaty side upright. Shook on some Jane's Salt mix. Poured on some soy sauce. Striped on some General Tsao's sauce. Shook on some dried parsley. Shook on some paprika. Poured on some more soy sauce. Had a napkin to soak up the run off.
Then for some reason I had the idea to take my knife and run it across the skin side. I must have saw my dad do it before. Maybe it softens the skin? I don't know. Then I decided to cut the piece in half. On one of the halves, I cut a layer off, so that one layer had skin and the other didn't. Thus I had three pieces to work with: one without skin, one thin one with skin, and one thick one with skin. I cooked each piece separately for about three minutes; I also kept in my mind that when the salmon begins breaking apart or separating, then it's either done or nearly done.*
Piece 1) For the thin piece with skin, I added olive oil to the pan, and it burned. I didn't know why. Maybe there was something in the pan that I hadn't washed away. Maybe there was some flavoring on it that burned. Maybe there was too much oil.
Piece 2) For the second piece, I decided to cut up the onion half I had in the fridge. I cut half of the half up, so I had a quarter an onion and used half of that with the second piece and half with the third (an eighth of a whole onion per slice). The santoku cut the onion well (as opposed to my chef knife*). The second piece didn't burn.
Piece 3) The third piece didn't burn, either. I guess using the onion helped.
*I also played around with flipping each piece in the pan using just the pan.
**Perhaps either the santoku knife is simply sharper or my chef's knife has become dull or bent; I should get a honing steel.
Result:
The first piece was less tasty because of the burnt flavor. However, the crunchy skin was good.
Meanwhile, the second piece was probably best. There was just enough olive oil to keep the fish from being too dry and the onion didn't burn over as much as the onion used with the third piece.
Finally, the third piece benefited from the skin, but didn't have quite the juiciness of the second piece. The pan definitely had less oil for the third piece.* By the time I tried the last piece, I was bored and added some General Tsao** sauce on top.
*I was down to my last ounces of olive oil and by the time I got to the third piece I tried to add drops of what remained. While I had some miscellaneous oil available (largely composed of bacon fat*** at the moment), I didn't want to use it for the salmon. Getting back to the olive oil, I've only bought two bottles of olive oil since coming to Maryland two years ago. Furthermore, I had barely used the first of the two bottles before it fell down and broke; the mess took forever to clean up. I have some other "I barely did/used this" to tell one day.
**Some people put ranch on everything. Some people put ketchup on everything. I put barbecue sauce (and recently discovered General Tsao sauce) on many things. Since coming to Maryland in two years, I've had two bottles of olive oil. The first of which I barely used and fell down and broke and I took forever to clean up (in the sense that I picked up the glass, occasionally put down paper to soak up more oil, but took some days before deciding to actually wipe away the oil completely). I have some other "I barely did this" to tell one day.
***[20161022] On 20101013 I wrote "don't judge me for using bacon fat when I cook meat" but some time since then I learned that saving and using bacon fat is actually a practice. There are, however, steps to producing and storing it properly. I also wrote, "Apparently I overlooked posting my use of bacon fat when cooking meat."
This was my first time making salmon as well as the first time I finished a bottle of olive oil.
 |
| Piece 1 (top), Piece 2 (bottom, left), Piece 3 (right) |
Steps I took:
Salmon: Defrosted salmon (.58 lbs at $11/lb). Turned the meaty side upright. Shook on some Jane's Salt mix. Poured on some soy sauce. Striped on some General Tsao's sauce. Shook on some dried parsley. Shook on some paprika. Poured on some more soy sauce. Had a napkin to soak up the run off.
Then for some reason I had the idea to take my knife and run it across the skin side. I must have saw my dad do it before. Maybe it softens the skin? I don't know. Then I decided to cut the piece in half. On one of the halves, I cut a layer off, so that one layer had skin and the other didn't. Thus I had three pieces to work with: one without skin, one thin one with skin, and one thick one with skin. I cooked each piece separately for about three minutes; I also kept in my mind that when the salmon begins breaking apart or separating, then it's either done or nearly done.*
 |
| Piece 1 (left) and Piece 2 (right) |
Piece 1) For the thin piece with skin, I added olive oil to the pan, and it burned. I didn't know why. Maybe there was something in the pan that I hadn't washed away. Maybe there was some flavoring on it that burned. Maybe there was too much oil.
Piece 2) For the second piece, I decided to cut up the onion half I had in the fridge. I cut half of the half up, so I had a quarter an onion and used half of that with the second piece and half with the third (an eighth of a whole onion per slice). The santoku cut the onion well (as opposed to my chef knife*). The second piece didn't burn.
Piece 3) The third piece didn't burn, either. I guess using the onion helped.
*I also played around with flipping each piece in the pan using just the pan.
 |
| Piece 3 |
**Perhaps either the santoku knife is simply sharper or my chef's knife has become dull or bent; I should get a honing steel.
Result:
The first piece was less tasty because of the burnt flavor. However, the crunchy skin was good.
Meanwhile, the second piece was probably best. There was just enough olive oil to keep the fish from being too dry and the onion didn't burn over as much as the onion used with the third piece.
Finally, the third piece benefited from the skin, but didn't have quite the juiciness of the second piece. The pan definitely had less oil for the third piece.* By the time I tried the last piece, I was bored and added some General Tsao** sauce on top.
 |
| Crazy Jane, Kikkoman, General Tsao,, Parsley, Paprika |
*I was down to my last ounces of olive oil and by the time I got to the third piece I tried to add drops of what remained. While I had some miscellaneous oil available (largely composed of bacon fat*** at the moment), I didn't want to use it for the salmon. Getting back to the olive oil, I've only bought two bottles of olive oil since coming to Maryland two years ago. Furthermore, I had barely used the first of the two bottles before it fell down and broke; the mess took forever to clean up. I have some other "I barely did/used this" to tell one day.
**Some people put ranch on everything. Some people put ketchup on everything. I put barbecue sauce (and recently discovered General Tsao sauce) on many things. Since coming to Maryland in two years, I've had two bottles of olive oil. The first of which I barely used and fell down and broke and I took forever to clean up (in the sense that I picked up the glass, occasionally put down paper to soak up more oil, but took some days before deciding to actually wipe away the oil completely). I have some other "I barely did this" to tell one day.
***[20161022] On 20101013 I wrote "don't judge me for using bacon fat when I cook meat" but some time since then I learned that saving and using bacon fat is actually a practice. There are, however, steps to producing and storing it properly. I also wrote, "Apparently I overlooked posting my use of bacon fat when cooking meat."
No comments: