My mother’s Oriental salmon seaweed rice bowl

PETALING JAYA, March 29 — We never know what to call this dish my mother makes. All we know is that family and friends would often ask her to make the dish and it would be finished even before the appetisers are served. People would heap their bowls with generous portions, taking seconds, thirds...until every grain of rice is finished. That is how good this dish is although it doesn’t have an official name.

Inspired by Japanese, Chinese and Korean cuisines, my mother just came up with this dish one day. She grew up experimenting different recipes in the kitchen, watching my late grandmother cook Peranakan dishes, kuih-muih and secret recipes known only to the homes in the fishing village. Whenever my mother watched Martin Yan of “Yan Can Cook”, she could re-create the same dish without even bothering to record the TV show. At restaurants we dined, she could tell us what ingredients they put in every dish and she never needed to measure anything because her deft hands are her weighing scales.

Use short grain rice for this recipe for a better texture and bite (left). Start cooking the rice over the stove or in a rice cooker (right).


Defrost the salmon by leaving it out in room temperature (left). You can just use the natural oils of the salmon for this dish (right).

So, this unnamed dish remained very popular but we called it different names, depending on our mood. ‘Salmon rice’ , ‘Japanese rice’, ‘salmon seaweed rice’ were names we used to call the dish but I think it is more Oriental than Japanese because sometimes Korean seaweed is used instead. Most of the ingredients are Japanese and salmon is a pretty universal ingredient.

Remove rice from pot into another dish to cool it down (left). This is one of the Japanese ingredients for the rice (right).


Add this ingredient as well or if you want, use an alternative (left). Seaweed is one of the key ingredients and this is Korean seaweed (right).

Just last evening, my mother was thinking of what to cook for dinner. She bought some salmon recently so she decided to cook what I now call the Oriental salmon seaweed rice bowl. “It is an easy dish to make and suits people who are lazy to cook,” said my mother. I have not tried making it by myself but I do enjoy eating it. So, this edition of Weekend Kitchen is my mother’s recipe. “Will I get famous after I share my recipe?” my mother joked. I told her that it is a good thing that she is willing to share her recipe to people who might be interested in this dish.

Once it is cooled, add in all the seasonings you want.

So, without further ado I present you the newly-dubbed Oriental salmon seaweed rice bowl from my mother.

Ingredients

500 grams frozen salmon

2 1/2 cups of short grain rice

3 1/2 cups of water

Japanese seasoning or furikake (any kind)

Japanese or Korean seasoned seaweed, cut into small pieces

Yield: 2-4 persons

Method

1. Defrost the salmon. While defrosting the fish, measure the rice and place it in a large pot. Wash the rice until the water becomes clear. Drain and add clean water. Cook rice over low to medium heat on the stove.

2. Pan fry the salmon in a non-stick frying pan over a low to medium fire on the stove. The salmon has natural oil so you do not need to put any oil when cooking.

Add the salmon flakes onto the rice and seasonings.

3. Stir the rice and make sure that it is cooked. Use a fork or chopsticks to ensure the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the stove, once the rice is cooked. Keep an eye on the salmon and flip it over the to the other side. Make sure both sides are browned and cooked before removing from the stove.

4. Prepare a wooden container and place the cooked rice inside it. Leave to cool naturally. Once cooled, add your choice of Japanese seasoning and mix thoroughly.

Sprinkle some seaweed on top of the salmon, rice and seasonings.

5. Remove the salmon from the stove and start deboning the fish. As you remove the bones, use a pair of chopsticks to flake the salmon. Once that is done, sprinkle the salmon on top of the rice.

Stir everything together with chopsticks or any utensil.

6. Finally, put in the seaweed and stir everything together. It is now ready to be serve!