Sunday, November 29, 2015 – And now for our last ingredient challenge of the season. My coworker Eric S picked salmon (good protein base), orange juice (I can make a citrus glaze for the salmon), cantaloupe (I guess I could infuse it into the orange juice), artichoke hearts (I can work with that), and… kimchi. Okay, we’ll see what I can do.
Lucky for me, I decided to try mixing the kimchi with the roasted artichoke hearts and mayo and call it a Kimchi and Artichoke Slaw. And you know what, it kinda worked.
Now there are many kinds of kimchi. The most common ones are napa kimchi, radish kimchi, and “sliced” kimchi, which is apparently a little bit of everything. For this recipe, you’ll definitely want to use the napa or the sliced variety–it’s hard to make a slaw with big blocks of radish. (Or go ahead and try it and let me know.) Also, some kimchis are spicier than others (and they’ll be labeled on the box). I went with one labeled “mild”, so I could work it into my recipe more easily. Lastly, some kimchis have MSG. You’ll definitely want to check.
Now that you know what I’m doing, let’s get to the recipe.
Ingredients
one 13-16oz can artichoke hearts, quartered
olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
one 13-16oz package kimchi (mild, sliced or napa)
6oz mayo
4 oz cantaloupe
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 lb salmon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Drain artichoke hearts completely, then toss with 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp kosher salt, and 1 tsp ground black pepper. Spread onto a baking sheet in a single layer and roast for 20 min.
- Separate artichoke hearts and toss with kimchi and mayo to make a slaw.
- Puree the cantaloupe, then mix with orange juice and cornstarch.
- Coat salmon with olive oil, salt, and pepper. In a frying pan over medium-high heat, sear the salmon for 2 min on each side.
- With the oven still at 425 F, move the salmon to a baking sheet and bake until fully cooked, about 5 min. Remove fish from oven and let rest, loosely covered in foil, for 10 min.
- Add cantaloupe-orange mixture to frying pan. Lower to medium heat. Sauce will simmer and thicken up very quickly. Lower heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Plate the fish onto a plate, cover in cantaloupe-orange sauce. Serve slaw on the side.
Serves 1, except slaw, which serves 4-6.
As it turns out, the kimchi slaw is really good. The flavor of the slaw is a little strong (not surprising, since it’s kimchi), but it complements the salmon really well. The recipe says to serve the slaw on the side for presentation. But for flavor, you’ll want to eat the salmon and the slaw together, in the same bite. The flavors really do go well with each other. I’d say this is easily the most successful of my ingredient challenges.
Now, when I first made the recipe, I used too much cornstarch, and the sauce was way too thick, almost like a thick jelly like substance. I also didn’t make enough sauce. I’ve updated the recipe to use less cornstarch but more sauce, but I haven’t tested it yet. Give it a try and please let me know.