secret ingredient (salmon)

Fine, not so secret. I'll tell you: I marinated some salmon to bake up for dinner, and the key ingredient that threw Conrad for a loop when I told him was Crown Royal scotch.

I know, weird, right?

It's an idea sort of borrowed from a Joyce Goldstein cookbook and sort of dimly remembered from evening grilling salmon at the restaurant. I mixed some scotch, soy sauce, light brown sugar, garlic, and ginger, added oil, and left the salmon to sit a couple of hours. It might have been more interesting to have it sit longer, but oh well.

While the salmon baked, I heated some vegetable oil and sesame oil, then gently sauteed some big pieces of garlic, just to flavour the oil. After I removed the garlic I tossed in slices of white onion and zucchini, plus some chile flakes. Once they'd browned slightly, I added some bok choy to the pan, stirred it to wilt it a bit, then some soy sauce and a cover. This went underneath the salmon on the serving plate, though I served it atop the salmon ultimately.

Nice dinner, though. Pretty simple to do. We had a bottle of a Mission Hill Pinot Noir we'd enjoyed on our last trip to Vancouver, and some fresh cherries to munch on as twilight drew over the neighbourhood. Conrad took photos of me hamming it up for his delight. I'm shameless, I know.

7 miles in the AM. Woo-hoo!