This is one of my daughter’s favorite dinners. In my opinion, eating a delicious meal has a lot to do with the combination of dishes you eat together. And this combination of a great savory salmon with a tangy, sweet & spicy caper salad and then smoothed out by teriyaki mushrooms with rice is just amazingly good. I always believe in pairing foods that are salty with sweet, heavy meats with fresh and tangy salads, hot spicy dishes with more mild, savory dishes.
When cooking a whole meal, a thing to keep in mind is the order of things you do to cook the 3 dishes. Cookbooks never tell you what is the best way to order things when you are cooking more than one dish. You want the warm/hot dishes to be hot and the cold dishes to be cold for foods to taste its best.
So here’s what I do:
- wash and cook the rice
- prepare the salmon (season it and let it sit)
- prepare the caper salad but never dress the salad until you are ready to eat. Dressing the salad too early will wilt the greens and make it all soggy.
- cut up mushrooms/onions and get the teriyaki sauce ready (use store brand or make your own – teriyaki mushrooms over rice recipe)
- put two frying pans on the stove, turn on the heat and then cook salmon in one pan and teriyaki mushrooms/onions in the other.
- when the two hot dishes (salmon, mushrooms) are done, now it’s time to yell “Dinner is ready!!” then plate the rice, mushrooms, salmon and then quickly toss the salad and plate it.
Enjoy!
What's for dinner, Mom? 