Hoison Salmon Vemicelli

I looked around last night and discovered I had neither rice nor potatoes.  What's odd about that is that we haven't bought rice in a year (we bought a 20 lb. bag last time) and we don't necessarily eat one or the other for every meal.  But I was stumped.  So after refusing to cook and taking a bath accompanied by reading a book, I recalled having some gluten-free noodles on hand.

And my plot began to form.  My husband, for reasons unbeknownst to me, refuses to eat sweet potatoes.  I have tried to explain how much better for him they are than white potatoes, but he still refuses.  However, last night I prevailed, as I had some vermicelli on hand made from sweet potatoes.  HA! So there, dear!  (Small victory, I cannot gloat, as he still has no idea.)

I received a rating of "great" from my daughter, "delicious" from my husband, and a clean plate from our little president of the clean plate club.


Hoison Salmon Vermicelli
Salmon:
16 oz (or so) of salmon (preferably wild-caught), cut into 4 oz. pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. grated ginger
3 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 oz. soy sauce
1 tsp. powdered wasabi
1/8 cup hoison sauce


Noodles:
8 oz. vermicelli (glass) noodles
8 cups water
1 cup green tea
2 tsp. fish sauce
2 tsp. hoison sauce
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. powdered garlic
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Veggies
Assorted veggies (we used 1 ear fresh corn, 1 pkg. frozen broccoli, 1/2 pkg frozen onions & peppers)
2 tsp. tamari sauce
3 tsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. grated ginger
2 tsp. hoison sauce

It sounds like a laundry list, but most of the ingredients are repeaters.  We brought this all together, including thawing the salmon, in under an hour.

Pour first 6 ingredients of the salmon marinade into a small pan, cook on low while stirring until fully blended.  Add hoison sauce and stir well.  Spoon the marinade over the fish, set aside to marinade for at least 10 minutes. 








While fish is marinading, put on a large pot of water to boil. Splash a dash of salt and sesame oil in it.  Meanwhile, make a cup of green tea.  Make yourself a cup, too, you deserve it.  Set tea aside.
Begin to heat a skillet over med-high heat. Once it is hot, pour in enough coconut oil to coat the bottom.  Let heat for a minute or so, then add the salmon pieces, skin side down.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Flip.  Cook for 4 minutes and remove.  Keep warm & covered.

Meanwhile, either have your significant other cook the veggies (like I did) or stir-fry all ingredients together.  Add your noodles to the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.  Strain and rinse well with cold water (my package said to rinse 3 times. 

Pour your cup of green tea into the salmon pan, and scrape up any bits left on the bottom of the pan.  Bring to a boil.  Add your noodle ingredients (fish sauce, hoison sauce, grated ginger, powdered garlic, black pepper.)  Let boil together about 2 minutes.  Taste. If it's super yummy, add your noodles. If not, adjust the seasonings.  When adding the vermicelli, be cautious.  It tends to travel by plop (I burned my face in 3 places when I strained them initially. NICE.)  Cook 3 more minutes, your noodles will resemble in looks a tar pit.  Never mind that, serve immediately, in layers-- noodles + veggies+ sauce.

If, like my husband and I, you like some things to pack a little heat, we used the Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce.