Miso Crunch Salad With Seared Salmon - Such a Colorful Meal

Such a colorful meal! I was taking pictures of this salad, and through the camera lens, all these colors looked so vivid and vibrant. In fact, the actual thing was just as showy. It's amazing how pretty a salad can been, all sorted and presented in a single plate.

Miso crunch salad with seared salmon - 

Ingredients (about two portions)?

Main:

• 100 grams kale
• 1/2 medium carrot
• 1 small chunk purple cabbage
• 1 small bundle parsley or cilantro
• 1 small pack/34 grams crispy ramen snack
• 1/2 cup/60 grams green peas 
• 12 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds

Salmon:

• 250 grams salmon fillet
• Some olive oil
• Some salt
• Some black pepper

Dressing:

• 2 tablespoons white miso
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin avocado oil
• 2 tablespoons white sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon lime or green lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

How? 

Mix all the ingredients listed under the "dressing" section. Set aside for later use.

Peel-off the salmon skin if any. Also use your fingers and feel and flesh throughout, making sure there're no bones within. But of course we're going to slice the salmon to medium size cubes, which will also help in finding any hidden bones if any.

Coat the salmon chunks with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and black pepper. You can bake these salmon cubes in the oven, but I simply sear them using a pan instead. Either way works fine. Just make sure the salmon cubes are cooked-through. Once ready, remove from heat and set aside waiting for assembling in the end.

Now let's prep all other ingredients for the actual salad part. Have big container ready, roomy enough to mix the ingredients with dressing without worrying about spilling.

Use the leafy part of the kale only, give it few rough chops. Peel and julienne the carrot, or just use thin peels instead. Chop the parsley or cilantro. Thinly slice purple cabbage, which will roughly fill in one loosely packed cup. Halve the cherry tomatoes.

Prepare a small pot of water and bring to a boil. Add in the green peas and cook for no more than a minute. Drain and let cool.

Add all that prepped ingredients to the big container, along with toasted white sesame seeds and a small pack of crispy ramen snack. Remember to crumble the noodles before pouring into the container.

Pour in the dressing too. Toss till combined. Taste and see if any more seasonings are needed. If unsure, I do suggest to use less salt in the beginning because the crispy ramen snack can be quite salty to begin with.

Once flavor checked, arrange on serving plates. 

This recipe should be good for two full servings, so two plates sounds like a good idea. Arrange cooked salmon throughout.

Such a healthy and delicious meal. Well, maybe except the crispy ramen snack part. But you know what, you can totally omit the ramen snack if don't feel like using it. However, if you still craving for a crunchy bite in the salad, perhaps use croutons instead, or some crumbled crackers.

Just remember to add in the croutons or crackers last minute, because they tend to get soft and soggy faster than the fried ramen noodle snacks.

Other salad recipes:

• Shabu pork salad in homemade miso dressing
• Chopped kale and chickpea salad with roasted chicken in red wine vinaigrette dressing
• White bean and tuna salad (insalata di tonno e fagioli)

Baked Camembert with Hot Honey

This is a very versatile recipe. I mean the whole Camembert is there for sure, and who doesn't like a chunk of oozing cheese to eat along with bread? So what goes around the cheese is more so additional points here and there per my opinion.

Honey is another key, it is an ingredient that most likely goes really well with most variety of cheese. So we have the Camembert and honey down for sure. All other extra elements solely depend on your own preference. 

Simply use whichever herb you usually enjoy in a dish, such as rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Dried red chili flakes is my favorite, but a little twist by using pink peppercorns or even Thai sweet chili sauce can be fun too. Remember, the key is to incorporate things that you normally love in this baked cheese recipe.

Baked Camembert with hot honey - 

Ingredients?

• 1 round Camembert cheese
• 1 small sprig rosemary
• 1 garlic clove
• Some baguette or other type of bread of your liking
• Some extra virgin olive oil
• Some salt flakes
• Some black pepper
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon dried red chili flakes (I used 1 tablespoon of Thai sweet chili sauce instead)

How?

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius / 395 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the Camembert from the plastic packaging if there's any, but do save the wooden box. Simply put the cheese back to the wooden box, which can act like a serving container. I further use a baking dish to hold the cheese box in case of any spilling in the oven later on.

Use a knife and score the top of the Camembert. Peel and slice the garlic. Insert the garlic slices here and there within the cracks on the surface of the cheese. Also pick out some rosemary and insert that to the cheese too. 

Since we will be heating up the honey in the oven, I didn't intend to make the hot honey prior, but simply mixing room temperature honey with some Thai sweet chili sauce. You can mix honey with dried red chili flakes too. Pour that all over the cheese. Also sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.

Into the oven. Mine baked for about 15 minutes. Should be around that time. The basic idea is to use high heat and bake till the cheese seems about to melt. Note that the surface of the Camembert might still appear slightly solid, so just aim for the oozing cheese underneath.

Once ready, remove the Camembert from the oven. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and serve with preferred bread. I used some baguette slices.

You can also pre-toast the bread slices. Slightly crunchy bread works and dips even better with melted Camembert.

Of course you can serve it with crackers too. But crackers tend to break more easily, so in that case, perhaps have some utensils on the side to scoop out the cheese then spread onto the crackers instead.  

Other recipes good with a glass of wine or two (don't drink and drive):

• Steamed clams with smoked bacon in white wine parsley sauce
• Less oil fried cream cheese wontons