Teriyaki Salmon with Sesame Noodles

My kids love salmon.

However, I need to be very creative to get Jim to eat it.

He loves this teriyaki salmon.

The fishiness of the salmon seems to be completely cut by the sour rice vinegar and the sweet apple juice.

Your run of the mill bottled teriyaki sauce is probably all sugar.

What I love about this is that it's not sickeningly sweet.

I serve it with simple sesame noodles mixed with carrot, green onion and cucumber.

Teriyaki Salmon with Sesame Noodles

(Fish is from: Not Your Mother's Weeknight Cooking/

the noodles are adapted from thekitchn.com)

Salmon

One 2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut in pieces

2 garlic cloves

1 can frozen sugar-free apple juice concentrate (I use NoName)

1/2 C low sodium soy sauce or shoyu sauce

3 Tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 C chopped green onion

4 -6 1 inch thick salmon filets

Noodles

2 bundles soba noodles

2-3 carrots cut into match sticks (you could grate it too, just dont bother blanching if you do)

1/2 cucumber, in thin rounds or long ribbons

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 Tbsp honey (optional)

2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

a few dashes hot sauce

For the fish:

Place fish in a 9x13inch baking dish.

Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor, whiz until garlic and ginger are very finely chopped.

Add apple juice concentrate, soy and vinegar. Whiz again.

Stir in onion.

Pour over fish. Cover with plastic and refrigerate 30mins.

Bake fish 10-15 minutes or until fish is firm.

For the noodles:

Boil noodles 6 minutes and then drain and rinse with cold water.

Pour noodles into a large bowl.

Blanch carrots in a little boiling water for 1 minute. Add to noodles with cucumber and onion.

In a small bowl, whisk together sesame oil, vinegar, honey, soy and hot sauce.

Pour over noodles, cover with plastic and reserve until fish is ready.

Room temperature noodles are fine.

Serve Noodles topped with fish, teriyaki sauce and a few more bits of green onion.

(Dad, avert your eyes from Jimmy's hand...seriously, it's for your own good...)

Black Beans with Ginger

I made more refried beans.

Beans with ginger and hoisin sauce.

Ginger and hoisin make the beans sweet, smoky and spicy.

Clara told me she could eat these beans for every meal.

These have a more Asian taste than the Limey Beans, they taste great piled into tortillas (or a large lettuce leaf) with brown rice, mango salsa, sour cream and black olives.

Both kids came back begging for more of the beans 20 minutes after we finished dinner.

Black Beans with Ginger

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, minced

2 garlic cloves, minced and crushed

1-2 Tbsp grated ginger (I freeze my ginger to make it easier to grate)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1-2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce

1/2 C vegetable broth

2 tins black beans

Heat oil in a med sauce pan. Add onion and cook on med heat until soft, about 8 mins.

Add garlic, ginger and thyme and cook on med another few minutes.

Stir in hoisin and broth.

Add beans and mash in with a potato masher. Simmer on low for 20 mins. Stir a few times.

Serve on a tortillas or large lettuce leaf. Top with brown rice, mango salsa, sour cream and olives.

Baking Season

Baking is always in season but at Christmas even the most timid baker feels daring and inspired to fill the house with sweet smells and delicious treats.

Clara is a gingerbread girl. Gramma Marion was always sneaking her gingerbread men, it was one of their many little 'secrets'.

Gingerbread cutouts are such fun to do if you have an open afternoon, a few cookie cutters and a sweet little helper. I always use Martha's recipe for Molasses Ginger Cookies.

They always turn out and the dough is lovely to work with.

{Just found this post that somehow wasn't posted in December}