Salmon Tartare Asian Style With Chicon

This is my third time making raw fish tartare as apéro. Usually, my preferred raw fish for raw fish tartare is Tuna but it's very expensive compared to salmon! The species of Tuna available in the supermarket here is Nageoire Jaune or Albacore. The usual common seafood over here are flat fish, crevette grises, or mussels (my 2 darlings saw juicy ones clinging on the dike this afternoon :-P). Then... flashbacks of poor tunas that were caught before maturing age I saw in National Geographic channel not long ago made my hand grab that pack of salmon! Anyway, the results for this recipe turned out well and my guests were fine and loved it. One of my close Belgian friends, Aldina in Hamburg requested this recipe to be on my blog when she visited me in Penang but I postponed it for quite sometime (until she had to PM me for the recipe! Sorry, for giving the recipe late :-P and I hope your guests loved it as much as we did).

I served this tartare back then with large size papadums and boiled edamame beans. Now, I'm back in Belgium, I have the pleasure of eating kilos of Belgium 'White Gold' ~ the Chicon! The thought of serving this salmon tartare using the chicon leaves was because of the fresh and crunchy tasty leaves. I stil wonder why Chicons are considered bitter... I don't taste it that much actually. I had tasted worst than that with other vegetables like bitter gourd and some terrible Traditional Chinese Medicine when I was sick. The other reason(s) was I short of small plates and don't have those tiny individual serving bowls :-D Banana leaf did come across my mind but you can't eat it, right? :-D I stored minimum 2 kilos of chicon at a time in the fridge and why not using them?

Most importantly to remember when handling raw seafood and meat, clean your hands, utensils and working surfaces before and after thoroughly. Put raw ingredients in the fridge if you're not serving it before time. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much I did.

Salmon Tartare Asian Style With Chicon

Serves 6-8 persons

300 g Salmon fillet (w/o skin) ~ Sushi-grade quality

Several ears of Chicon (Belgian Endives) ~ I used about 1 kg!

Marinade:

60 ml Light Soya Sauce/Tamari

30 ml Fresh Lime Juice

1 tsp Lime zest ~ grated finely

½ tsp Garlic ~ grated from 1 large/2 small cloves

1 tsp Ginger ~ grated from a thumb-size ginger root

1 Shallots ~ sliced and chopped finely

Garnish:

1 tsp White Sesame seeds ~ toasted and lightly crushed

1 pc Red Chilli ~ deseeded and chopped finely

1 stalk Spring Onion ~ sliced diagonally into thin slices

Salt & Pepper to taste (optional)

Method:

1. Clean the raw salmon fillet under running water. Pat dry with kitchen paper and set aside.

2. Wash the Chicons properly and pat them dry. Trim off the browned ends, few outer leaves and any bruises. Leave it whole until needed as chicons turned brown and wilted quickly (I usually put them back in the fridge or covered it up in a drainer).

3. In a clean bottle or container with a lid, mix all the Marinade ingredients and give it a good shake until the ingredients well incorporated. Set aside until needed.

4. Cut the salmon steak into long strips and dice into cubes ~ roughly about 1 cm x 1 cm thickness or just the way you would prepare Salmon/Tuna Tartare. Be careful not to dice the fish too small or it would be mushy and break apart when you mix in the marinade.

5. In a bowl, add in the diced salmon and ¾ of the marinade mixture.With a spoon, slowly fold them together.Wrap up with cling film and refrigerate until time to serve.

6. When it's time to serve, make sure the salmon tartare changed color or turned opaque and the meat is 'springy' cooked by the Lime juice.Taste it again to make sure the tartare is well seasoned. Add more of the left over marinade if needed.

7. Add in the sliced spring onions, chopped chilli & lightly crushed toasted sesame seeds. Mix it well and serve in small individual serving bowls with separated chicon leaves or spoon the salmon tartare ready in the chicon leaves.

Note:

I put few whole chicons on the side so that the guests can have extras. If you like more pungent, try it with small amount of wasabi to give it a Japanese taste, bird's eye chillies or Scotch Bonnet to give extra kick for the adventurous guests :-) I suggest that you put separately the wasabi or chillies and let the daring guests help themselves.

You can use skin-on salmon steak which is a bit cheaper than skin-off salmon steaks. Just don't forget to remove the skin when you dice it! :-P This recipe is also wonderful and delicious with Tuna. You can use Lemon or Yuzu as well :-)

Enjoy!

Delicious Mango Salad... My Way

Once my class was given a question by our English teacher. In the midst of her teachings she asked us, to correct this - " There are man goes (man-goes) on the tree". It's her way to jolt us from our 'dreamland' or she must had noticed someone or some of us nearly dozed off...:-D Her class is not boring at all, really... but after good lunch and windy fan spinning above our heads, the time for siesta in us sets in... :-D

Mentioned the word m-a-n-g-o would make anyone swooned and salivating! Everyone will have their favourites... I love Black Gold, Chukanan, Waterlily to name a few. The mango fruit can be use in several ways; as desserts like well known Thailand's  Khao Neow Mamuang (Sticky Rice with Mango), use unripe in savoury salad or as pickle sold by road side vendors, dipped in sour plum powder in Southeast Asian countries. Trust me, it's so...soooo (drooling) deliciously fresh and when you dip the crunchy slices into the sour plum powder... mmmm.... then put into mouth ... crunch... mmm....mmm... IT's better than chomping chips & crackers minus the calories!

My Way Mango Salad

Serves 2-4

2 nos Half Ripe Mangoes 

1 cup Basil Leaves- firmly packed and roughly chopped (Any basil will do. In this recipe I used Thai Sweet basil from my pot.)

2-3 Fresh Red Chillies

4-8 Small Red Shallots-remove skin and slice thinly

1/4 cup of Thai Fish Sauce (Nam Pla) or more to your taste

2 nos Limes- juice only

Lime zests (optional)

Raw Cane Sugar to taste (you can use white sugar too)

Method:

1. Remove the skin of mangoes. Slice the mangoes about 0.50 cm thin slices along the fruit until your knife touches the seed. Do the same for the other side of the mango. (Reserve the seed to eat what's left later :-D). Roughly cut the mangoes into matchstick sizes. 

Note: Any type of half ripe mangoes can be use. Just beware that although Black Gold mangoes (Tong Dum in Thai) has dark green outer skin but inside is actually ripe with sweet orangy succulent flesh. Only way to tell if it's ripe is the yellow tinge at the stem part and to lightly touch/press the fruit to feel if is soft for ripeness.

2. In a bowl: Slice chillies in halves and remove the seeds from chillies if you don't want that hot. Thinly sliced the chillies. You can also roughly chop the chillies without removing the seeds but then you will end up eating seeds as well.

3. Add in the fish sauce, basil leaves, chilli and some sugar. Mix well and taste if you need to add in more sugar or fish sauce...

4. Pour in Lime juice little bit at first. Taste accordingly to your preference ( I used all 2 Limes plus the zest as well.) Add in more if you like more sourness. Add in the cut mangoes and stir well until well coated with the sauce.

Serve as side dish to rice, grill meat, seafood... even as toppings for steam fish to give it extra zing!

Note: You can prepare the sauce and the fruits in advance but don't mix them too early because mangoes will wilt and losing it's crunchiness. You will end up with soggy salad instead. 

You can also add in fried dried shrimp into this salad but I didn't use it because some people dislike dried shrimps and said it made the salad kinda oily & cloudy