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Dinner with wine acquired at the Gourmet Food & Wine Expo
Occasionally I cook with the intention of using ingredients on hand in order to stretch my budget and avoid a trip to the grocery store. Sometimes my intention is to purge my kitchen of nearly finished ingredients. Right now doing both seems to be more of a necessity because I’m not working. This evening I decided to not only use what I had, but purge as well. I had an almost-finished jar of tahini that I wanted to use up, in part because it was almost finished and in part because I also have a plastic container of tahini bought in bulk when I thought I’d run out.
Yesterday I took out a salmon fillet to thaw and, despite leftovers of other meals in my fridge, decided that salmon would be tonight’s dinner. Out came the enormous recipe binder for inspiration. Many pages of salmon recipes later I found a “sesame seed salmon” and used it as inspiration for tahini use. What follows is the original recipe, and my own recipe:
Sesame Seed Salmon: Original recipe* (serves 4)
1 ¼ – 1 ½ lb (625-750 g) boneless, skinless, salmon filet, cut into 4 pieces.
¼ cup light soy sauce
¼ cup liquid honey
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
½ cup sesame seeds
Place salmon in a shallow dish. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, honey and mustard; mix well and pour over salmon filets. Turn filets to coast completely with marinade, then dip salmon into sesame seeds, turning to coat completely. Place sesame-coated filets on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake in a 450º oven for 10-12 minutes or until salmon flesh is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.
*Source unknown. I copied & pasted into a Word document without noting its origins.
Sesame Seed Salmon with Tahini (serves 1)
Note: I do not measure ingredients.
1 salmon filet (skin was on)
light tamari or soy sauce
liquid honey, around the same amount as tamari
Tahini
a good shake of mustard powder
1 tsp of cilantro
Sesame seeds, to coat
Preheat oven to 450º, line a baking sheet with foil (done because I decided that it would make for easier clean up) and spray with non-stick spray.
Blend tahini, honey, tamari, mustard powder and cilantro. Add some water if it’s too thick.
Rinse salmon and pat dry. Place in a bowl or dish. Coat with tahini mixture. Sprinkle both sides with sesame seeds.
Bake as indicated in the first recipe.
Tahini mixture would also work as a marinade. I have some leftover that I’ll try as salad dressing.
10 minutes in the oven was perfect. A little less might have worked too.
More photos:
