We don’t like wasting food. As food lovers and food bloggers, it’s pretty much tantamount to a crime.
Sarah and I once had friends over for dinner, and we juiced half a lemon. At the end of the night during cleanup, one of said friends picked up the lonely second lemon half, and—in all seriousness—asked if he should throw it away. Needless to say, looks were exchanged between me and Sarah and some friendly yet impassioned mom-like berating ensued.
Maximizing Ingredients
That’s a bit of a “worst-case scenario” story, but in general, you’ve probably noticed that we’re all about preserving and maximizing ingredients. We’re all about always using chicken carcasses to make stock, we’ve been known to make some pretty great lard for Chinese pastry recipes with discarded pork fat, and we always make a point to set aside ingredients that we don’t use for another application.
That lemon half I mentioned earlier? That would probably be zested for something, juiced for something else, and then the shell of the lemon would be thrown into a glass of water for an extra vitamin C kick. That’s just how we do it.
Don’t Throw Away Salmon Skin!
We recently posted a salmon recipe, and, lo and behold, in the kitchen we ended up with a deliciously crisped yet entirely superfluous piece of golden crispy salmon skin sitting on a plate. For anyone who doesn’t know it, crispy salmon skin is DELICIOUS.
The trick is plenty of oil, high heat when you’re searing, and a strong sense of self-control so as to not excessively move the salmon around.
What you get is crispy, salmon-y goodness, that is perfect with rice, avocado, and a drizzle of soy sauce. All were things that we had on hand, and they made for a pretty fantastic chef’s snack. So we decided to photograph it, and voila! New recipe!
(Bonus points if you serve it with roasted nori sheets and a little wasabi paste, which, unfortunately we didn’t have on hand. Poor man’s sushi roll, anyone?)
In conclusion, the lesson of the day is, maximize your ingredients, y’all! Chances are, you paid good money for an expensive piece of salmon, so you should enjoy every last bit of it.
Salmon Skin Rice Bowls: Recipe Instructions
Prepare your salmon skin. You can sear a piece of salmon with the skin-on, saving the salmon filet for other pursuits. Just sear the salmon on each side in a pan over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil until just cooked through.
Or you can pre-trim a piece of salmon to remove the skin, and fry that. If you use the latter method, you’ll want to heat a pan or cast-iron skillet with 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high heat, and fry the salmon skin until it’s golden and crisp.
Once the salmon skin is cooked, set it aside to cool slightly. Slice the salmon skin into thin strips.
Portion out the cooked white rice into bowls, and top each one with some sliced avocado and a handful of crispy salmon skin. Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.
Serve your Crispy Salmon Skin Rice Bowls with roasted nori sheets if you have them on hand, and dig into an easy, pared down, yet epically delicious meal.
Add those roasted nori sheets and a dab of wasabi to get a deconstructed crispy salmon skin roll!