instinctively flock like the salmon of capistrano

for those of you who didn't know, i'm korean american. (like for instance maybe vadim - i believe he thinks all asians are chinese. j/k!;) now, i'm the first to admit that i'm about as twinkie as they come (yellow on the outside, white on the inside, in case you were wondering). ...although in the last few years i've become good friends with LOTS of asian people that sometimes i look around at dinners and parties and think to myself that my parents would probably cry with happiness if they could see me now (that, or they would demand to know who the *fudge* i was and what had i done with their daughter?!).

i'm sure a lot of it has to do with having moved to northern california from nyc (the west coast is the only place i've been in the US where people aren't surprised i speak english fluently without an "asian" accent), but it still makes me laugh every now and then. (ok, always.)

anyway, even though i'm (now *mostly*) twinkie, this doesn't mean i don't love love love korean food. in fact, i grew up eating korean food pretty much every night for dinner (sometimes my mom would make random american dishes like burgers or corned beef... ok, so corned beef is an irish dish, but you get what i mean - it wasn't korean) and it's one of the only ways you can get me to eat heaps of vegetables. i'm not sure what it is, but with any other cuisine, i have to really make an effort to eat veggies; with korean food, i'll happily wolf down all the vegetable side dishes (banchan) i can get my grubby paw armed with chopsticks on. yum yum yum.

so remember how i told you a couple weeks ago about that fish stand called shogun fish at the saturday sf farmers' market? well i peek my head in now to see what they've got on tap. this past weekend, i saw some really nice wild alaskan salmon fillets and decided to incorporate them into this week's dinner menu.

i used a variation on the traditional korean galbi marinade (and observed in all "field tests" conducted by yours truly to be universally loved by the whitey folk i know) . the nice thing about fish in general is it doesn't take that long to, well, marinate, so it makes for a very easy and quick meal - perfect for a weeknight. this particular recipe takes about 45 minutes from prep to table, 30 minutes of which are for letting the fish just sit there so it can soak up the marinade.

my suggestion is to serve the salmon with creamy wasabi mashed potatoes and spicy stir-fried chinese long beans (yeah, you know what i'm talkin' about). of course, you can choose whatever you like... but, hello, WHY? this way is so deeeelish, you won't have to FISH for compliments from your guests because they'll be having a WHALE of a time! (get it? "FISH" and "WHALE"... because we're talking about SALMON?! hahahah-- *sigh* never mind...)


Korean-Style Broiled Salmon

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tbsps rice vinegar
2 tbsps brown sugar
2 tbsps fresh orange juice
1 tbsp Korean red pepper paste
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 tsps toasted sesame oil
2 scallions, chopped

4 6 oz fresh salmon fillets
2 tbsps olive oil

Whisk first 8 ingredients in a small bowl until sugar dissolves. Place salmon fillets in a Ziploc bag and pour marinade over; marinate fish for half hour (or up to 1 hour).

Preheat broiler. Remove fillets from marinade, reserving marinade. Heat olive oil in a large, ovenproof skillet on high heat. Place salmon fillets skin side down and cook fish for 2 minutes, or until skin is browned. Spoon a little of the marinade over the fillets (discard marinade), and then place skillet in oven. Broil for about 5 minutes (inside will still be cool), or until cooked to desired doneness (is that a word?). Serves 4.