Salmon and Burrata Salad

It’s been a while since I have posted any recipes and it’s not that I haven’t been cooking but truth is I haven’t done anything very new or post-worthy. I mean I have been doing fun stuff but nothing original of my own. Like FINALLY mastering poached eggs (yes they are not that difficult to do in the end), making Hollandaise sauce from scratch and brining and smoking my own pastrami.

I realize that I tend to go into mini-obsessions or preoccupations when it comes to food. For example I had a legendary period when I did nothing but bake pies and tarts simply because I had to master the perfect tart shell. Or making ice cream…cause I had to get a good ROI on my ice cream maker! And it’s not just the techniques I get absorbed in…it’s the food type or food ingredient. Lately it’s been all things salmon…I used to cook less fish because kid#1 avoids fish like the plague but since he’s been home a little less lately I’ve taken the opportunity to cook more seafood. Kid#1 has a fish phobia I think because he had multiple food allergies as a kid and so fish was never in his food vocabulary and he’s always found the taste of fish off-putting. Which was why it was hilarious recently when he went for his first ever meet-the-girlfriend’s family dinner…and they made the special effort to bake salmon for him! He had to pretend he loved it and eat a decent amount to be polite…we all couldn’t stop laughing at his plight.

So yes, salmon has been on my mind lately, and it’s been all manner of ways to make salmon…I think my recent best effort was to bake a whole salmon fillet – this recipe by Jessica Gavin was the bomb! And it went amazingly well with hollandaise sauce that I had made for poached eggs in the morning.

So after making this awesome baked salmon I keep craving for more salmon. In the end I decided to make a salmon salad as a light meal. I’ve always loved cooking out of whatever ingredients I have in the pantry or fridge. So this salad is simply a compilation of stuff I had on hand…but there’s still method in the madness as I chose some combinations that I thought were pretty cool…like lime juice and fish sauce and olive oil as a salad dressing…it’s supposed to have a slight Asian flavor profile.

So this salmon salad would have been perfect on its own but I happened to have burrata cheese on hand…and no, I don’t always have such unusual cheeses in the house but I had just been to the supermarket…I think it was Meidi-ya…and I was amazed at the range of deli cuts and cheeses on hand and couldn’t resist bringing a good selection home. I’ve always loved the creaminess of burrata cheese which to me is the ultimate salad topping. And it went perfectly with this salmon salad.

So here’s the salmon salad recipe – if you are making this feel free to switch the salad greens and the pumpkin seeds to any other nut topping.

Salmon and Burrata Salad

Servings: 6
Time: 1/2 hour
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients

300 – 400 g salmon fillet
1 bad of baby spinach leaves
1 japanese cucumber, sliced in half and cut into thin semicircles
1 piece of burrata cheese
1 shallot, minced
1 large lime, squeezed
1 green or red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

Directions

Brush the surface of the salmon with olive oil and sprinkle the surface with some salt and pepper. Place the salmon in a baking dish.
Place the salmon in the oven and grill 5 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.
Toast the pumpkin seeds on a non-stick skillet till lightly toasted and fragrant. Set aside.
Make the dressing – mix the chopped shallot, chili, fish sauce and olive oil together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon 1-2 spoons of the salad dressing on the salmon,then use a fork to flake off large chunk of fish and toss lightly.
Toss the remaining salad dressing with the spinach and cucumber. Plut the salad in a large salad bowl. Scatther the salmon chunks on top and sprinkle the toasted pumpkin seeds over it all. Place the burrata cheese right in the center of the salad and serve.