Speedy fried rice with garlic and ginger salmon skewers

I am often cooking quickly. Chopping, splashing, throwing and bashing things together in the fastest way possible. It’s not just a motherhood thing for me. I have always been busy, on the go and I am usually doing more than one thing at a time. What you don’t see in these videos is the chaos behind the camera. The bits in between the edits where I am pulling children down from climbing, stopping fingers reaching up for a handful of raw ingredients and trying to get everyone to wash their hands even though they insist they weren’t playing in the mud – holding out hands thick with the stuff. That’s why I love this week’s recipe with its speedy fried rice tip to keep dinner time simple, the way it should be.

My need for speed

My Mum always tells me that I do things too fast. Mostly when I chop the ends off my fingers, mandolin my thumb (I had that confiscated in the end), grate a chunk from the heel of my palm and smash salt and pepper shakers by the dozen – there have been many casualties because of my need for speed.

Cutting corners and eating fresh

While sometimes (given space, peace and the kitchen to myself) I love the meditation of cooking thoroughly and carefully with a glass of wine and some good music. Those moments are few and far between now. So when I cook in the week I like to cut corners while still eating fresh food. This recipe is about my glorious garlic and ginger salmon skewers. But I want to show you how to use microwave rice to make an excellent speedy fried rice to go with them.

If it’s good enough for JO…

I first saw Jamie Oliver use a pouch of microwave rice for his speedy fried rice recipe. I have always been impatient when it came to fried rice because you have to cook, drain and then quickly chill your rice before you can fry it. This is all well and good if you are well prepared and think ahead. It just doesn’t suit me Mon-Fri when I am cooking and watching the children on my own. So using a pouch of microwave rice is the perfect short cut. Jamie uses different ingredients to me and he uses a splash of tap water to fluff the rice up. I use the juices from cooking the salmon. Cooking the salmon skewers on a little open-top boat of tinfoil means you capture all those lovely juices to flavour your rice.

Rice safety

You can use any pouch of rice you like, I always go for wholegrain and sometimes ones with wild rice thrown in for a bit of texture. I would never reheat this dish because it is a pouch of microwave rice that you are already reheating in the first instance. If you don’t eat it at the point of serving, don’t bother saving it, get rid of any leftovers. Rice is a serious food poisoning risk if it’s not handled correctly. Mostly it is down to how you store the rice ahead of pre-heating it you can read more about that on the NHS website. Here are some of their rice safety tips.

Tips on serving rice safely

• Ideally, serve rice as soon as it has been cooked.
• If that is not possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within 1 hour).
• Keep rice in the fridge for no more than 1 day until reheating.
• When you reheat rice, always check that it’s steaming hot all the way through.
• Do not reheat rice more than once.

Make mid-week work for you

Some nights, especially if I have been working all day, I keep the evening meal simple as possible. If you don’t have much time at 5 pm to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, but you have some time at 10 pm then you can prepare your salmon the night before and leave it in a fridge to marinate overnight. The next day you can have the whole meal on the table in the time it takes to preheat your oven and cook the skewers. Equally, this dish can be made at the weekend when you have more time on your hands and don’t want to spend it stood at the stove! Have a great weekend and I hope you are eating something that brings you joy in the week ahead.

Speedy fried rice with garlic and ginger salmon skewers

Gemma

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 25 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 40 mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine Fusion

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

Garlic and ginger salmon skewers

• 6 cloves of garlic
• 2 thumb size pieces of ginger
• 50-70 g coriander
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 3-4 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of sweet chilli dipping sauce

Speedy fried rice

• 4 salmon fillets skin removed
• 1 onion finely diced
• 1 red pepper finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped

Instructions

 

Garlic and ginger salmon skewers

• Make a paste with your garlic. You can use a garlic crush or a knife and salt as I do in the video. Add it to a bowl.
• Peel and grate the ginger into the bowl with the garlic.
• Finely chop all of the stalks from the coriander and then before you get to the leaves separate 1/3 to garnish with at the end. Chop the remaining leaves and add them to the bowl.
• Add the olive oil, light soy sauce and sweet chilli dipping sauce. Give it a good mix and if it's too thick add more olive oil to loosen.
• If your salmon fillets haven't already had the skins removed, you can check out my video to see how I do this.
• Slice the salmon into inch thick strips. Check out the video to see how I slice them. I go against the grain so to speak. That may not make any sense until you see the video. This stops the salmon breaking up. If you cut them in to chunks instead of strips you might have issues.
• Give the salmon a really good mix, coating it thoroughly in the marinade.
• Assemble your skewers with the salmon and placed them into a roasting tin lined deep with tin foil. Cover the skewers with any remaining marinade.
• At this stage you can cling and move them to the fridge for later or if you are cooking them straight away cook them in a preheated oven 180ºC fan/GM 6 for 15 minutes.

Speedy fried rice and veg

• Five minutes before the salmon is done add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, onion, pepper and garlic to a pan and fry until soft.
• Add two pouches of wholegrain Microwave rice and stir continuously for 1-2 minutes.
• In another pan add the second tablespoon of coconut oil followed by any stirfry veg of your choice.
• When the salmon is done remove it from the oven and pour the juices from the tin foil into the rice then stir through.
• Check your salmon is cooked then set aside.
• I dress my stirfried veg with lime zest and juice and serve the salmon skewers on top of a bed of rice. Sprinkle with coriander to finish and serve immediately.

Video

Keyword garlic, ginger, salmon