Birthday Dinner

Well, I'm sure everyone is wondering what the big surprise dinner I had planned for my husband's birthday, right?  Okay, so dinner was a trio of his favorites.

Homemade Sushi

Asian Roasted Salmon

 And a restaurant re-make for The Cheesecake Factory Avocado Eggrolls, based on this recipe.

And for dessert (sorry, no picture)...Snickerdoodle Cheesecake from this recipe, except I used a traditional springform pan instead of the 8" x 8" pan in the recipe. 

Roasted Asian Salmon Recipe

Roasted Asian Salmon

Roasted Asian Salmon - adapted Eli's Asian Salmon from Barefoot Contessa

I tried this recipe last night for our Shabbat dinner.  It was a huge hit.  I made a few changes to the recipe to suit our tastes better.  First, I substituted the fish sauce and oyster sauce in the original recipe with hoisin sauce ( a family favorite).  I also reduced the amount of soy sauce, chili paste, garlic and ginger in the recipe to make it less salty and spicy.

Ingredients

nocoupons

• about 2 pounds salmon fillet (1 1/2 inches thick)
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (I used a combination of soy and Ponzu sauce instead and omitted the lemon juice)
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoons chili paste
• 1/2 cup sliced scallions (2 scallions)
• 1 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
• 1 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

Directions

Line an 8 by 12-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the salmon in the pan. If using a piece of salmon with the thinner tail end, fold under part of the tail to make the thickness approximately even.

In a mixing cup, combine the soy sauce and lemon juice (or ponzu sauce), rice vinegar, hoisin  sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, scallions, garlic, and ginger. Pour 1/3 of soy sauce mixture over the salmon. Sprinkle the panko evenly over the fillet. Pour the rest of the soy sauce mixture evenly over the panko. Be sure to soak the panko completely and if any runs off, spoon back onto the salmon. Set aside for 15 minutes, leaving all the sauce in the pan.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Roast the salmon for 18 to 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.