Salmon, not salmonella

I was talking to RT today about how I don't often cook meat—along with its cost, and its toll on the environment, I'm just not crazy about its smell when raw and the cold, slippery feel of it. Plus, I always feel like I'm spreading bacteria all over my kitchen whenever I tackle the stuff.

But I do cook fish. For some reason I find sea creatures easier to handle than, y'know, land beasts. This particular salmon recipe has an extremely short list of ingredients (salmon fillets, miso paste, chopped garlic) and an almost-as-short list of directions (thin out the miso with water, slather that and garlic over the salmon, let marinate, pan-fry, serve). When I have scallions I'll use those instead of garlic, which is good too. And I imagine you could thin out the miso with soy sauce, or sake, or some other flavorful liquid instead of just plain water, but I haven't experimented much with that. The slaw underneath is another super simple dish: shredded cabbage marinated overnight in rice wine vinegar and a bit o' sugar and salt.

These are both sort of old standards for me because they're dead easy and tasty. Neither are particularly refined, so generally I just make them for solo weeknight dinners, but I've also served the salmon on short notice for guests since I usually have the ingredients on hand and it's quick. With a pot of rice and some steamed veg on the side, miso salmon is served!