Salmon with Shitake Mushrooms

Usually when I am hungry and don't have the time to indulge in cooking,  I make fish.  It cooks very fast, almost faster than you have put a simple sandwich together, and it's healthy.  I cooked this on one such occasion and I also took some snap shots so that I could share. 

Ingredients:

• salmon fillet
• 304 shitake mushrooms sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 asparagus stalks, sliced
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of sugar
• 1 cup white long grain rice

This dish is good to eat with plain white rice, so if you plan to make the rice too, its best to start that first because that will take the longest time to cook.  

Then chop all the veggies and heat the olive oil in the frying pan.  

  

When the oil is hot, combine mushrooms and carrots in the frying pan with frequent stirring so that they dont burn.  

 

Mushrooms will soak up the oil.  Once the pan feels dry again add the sesame oil.  This will give it tons of flavor.  Sesame oil is good to add to dishes even after they've been cooked.  If you make fried rice and stir frys, it's a must have.

 

After about 5 minutes of frying, the mushrooms will start to get some color.  At this point add asparagus and garlic.  The reason for adding these later on is because asparagus cooks very fast and it would get mushy if cooked for a long time.  As for the garlic, it can burn easily if cooked this long.

 

Fry with constant stirring for a couple of more minutes.  Add salt, sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce.  Stir one more time and transfer onto a plate.  

 

 Add more olive oil if the frying pan seems too dry.  When the oil becomes hot, add salmon to the frying pan.  You might want to prepare a cover for it if you dont want it to spray all over your stove.  Fry for 2-3 mintues on each side, but make sure the burner is on high.  Salmon is pretty tasty by itself and doesn't require much seasoning.  I usually just salt it lightly and add just a tiny bit of soy sauce over it.