Salmon with crispy skin

You too can have salmon with crispy, crunchy, edible skin!

First, season your salmon with whatever you like. I used salt, pepper, and italian herbs. Another good combo is salt, smoked paprika and garlic powder. 

Now, here's the key to getting that skin to crisp up. Cut slits into the skin, being careful not to cut through the whole filet. This may take some practice.

Get a cast iron skillet super super hot. Add the tiniest bit of oil  (I recommend grape seed oil or any oil with a very high smoke point) and using a folded up paper towel, spread the oil thinly over the bottom of the pan. Once that oil is almost smoking, place your salmon skin-side down. Now, wait. Don't touch it. Wait like, 5 minutes. You will see the salmon becoming opaque from the bottom up and wait for it to hit about half-way through the filet.

 Carefully flip with a spatula. It should look like this. If it appears to be sticking, then wait longer. Nothing should stick to your cast iron if it is properly seasoned (oiled). Cook skin-side up for another 2 or 3 minutes on high (or longer if you like your salmon less pink in the middle). 

 Serve skin-side up if you like it crispy or skin-side down if you don't. 

Bok Choy Stir Fry with Chicken

This is a dish that satisfies every Chinese food-related craving I have and is low-sodium and pretty healthy.

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into tiny strips or bite-sized chunks
2-3 large heads of bok choy, rinsed, separate the white from the green but chop both
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, diced
1 cup diced sweet peppers
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
oil for stir frying (grape seed, wok oil, sesame oil)
Cooked white rice

For sauce:
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup Soy Vay teriyaki marinade
1 tblsp rice wine vinegar
1 pinch red chili pepper flakes
1 small chunk ginger, minced
3 garlic gloves, minced

1 tblsp corn starch

Prepare your vegetables. Break the white parts off the bok coy and chop them separately, as they take longer to cook than the greens. Mix together ingredients for sauce and set aside.

Toss the cut up chicken in some sesame oil. Heat another tblsp of oil in your wok or cast iron skillet. When the pan is super hot, brown your chicken in small batches. After each batch browns, place on plate. Make sure the pan does not get to crowded or else you won't that nice brown glaze on the chicken.

Once all the chicken is cooked and removed from the pan, start stir frying the vegetables in small batches, starting with the broc-onion-pepper-carrot mix. Stir fry for 3 min per batch. Move cooked veggies to another plate.

Now stir fry the whites of the bok choy until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Throw in the greens and allow to wilt. Reintroduce the chicken and other veggies into the pan and add sauce. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the sauce thickens and the chicken cooks through and the veggies are tender but not too soft, about 8 minutes.

Serve over rice!!!!!!!!!!

return

my eyes were drunk with longing

i filled my pupils up until

when no one was looking, they burst.

On Tattoos

I have no tattoos. Not even a tramp stamp. I'm an artist, yet never felt so strongly about an image that I wanted someone to permanently draw it into my epidermis. Starry Night on my nails, sure. I like to watch the mini masterpieces fade over the course of the week, chipping here and there until it resembles nothing like the intoxicating view outside Vincent's sanitarium. But never, ever a tattoo. It's not that I'm afraid of the pain -- maybe the commitment.

I had a friend in high school, who decided to get his favorite band scribed onto his forearm. That band happened to be Tool. No imagery from the videos, or posters or CD booklets..but just the four letter band name in a blue rectangle. To anyone unfamiliar with the Los Angeles area rock band from the 90s, this young man had labeled himself a complete tool. Even the most hardcore Tool fans amongst our friends found this comical. That young man went on to become (from what I see on FB posts) quite a good tattoo cover-up artist and has surely covered up his own unwise teenaged choice. But that's not even why I don't have a tattoo.

What does a tattoo really mean? It is, mostly something to be seen. To be shown to others, so that they may admire, comment, question. I, for one, do not like talking to others. So wearing a conversation piece does not interest me. Does this make me uncool? Most definitely. If cool means being impressive to others, then yes, I most certainly am not that. Do I like cool stuff? Do I feel like my interests are worth sharing? Perhaps. Who knows. It really has nothing to do with me spending money on writing on my skin. Flesh rots into the dirt or burns into ash. You can even survive without it, as many burn victims do. I let life scar me, and wear my art in my personality. In the eternal scheme of things, my skin is ephemeral and I accept this. Made of cells both living and dead, the beauty is already there, no need for frills.