Chef Michael Salmon - Join me in my Kitchen
Appetizers
Pot stickers are a hybrid type of dumpling that are both steamed and fried, creating a texture that captures the best of both worlds. This recipe has a Thai flavored pork filling and is served with a light and bright Thai dipping sauce.
Thai noodle salad is a great starter to a Thai themed meal and is so quick and simple to make. This salad is very versatile and any number of ingredients can be used in place of the chicken breast including grilled shrimp, cooked lobster meat, seared scallops, and almost any vegetable.
Cold smoked salmon is cured for 24 hours and gently smoked at a low temperature. With cold smoking, the salmon is “cooked” by the curing process and then exposed to smoke in a cool environment to impart smoke flavor.
These Flash-Fried Nori and Tuna Rolls are out of this world with their crisp panko-tempura exterior and soft tender interior of fresh tuna. Yum! Experiment with other fillings too. The Ginger-Wasabi Butter Sauce is a great match for this dish, with its French origins and Japanese flavors. The creaminess of the sauce balances with the heat of the wasabi and perfectly compliments the crispy roll.
We make these Spanish meatballs as an appetizer on our Foodie trip to the Catalonia region of Spain, but it could also be served as a main course for four people. Many of the sauces in Spain feature nuts as a main ingredient and these meatballs are served in a tasty meat broth that is thickened with ground almonds.
My roasted eggplant timbale is a recipe I feature on my Foodie trips to Sicily. It combines roasted eggplant and tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil and is quite simple to make. The completed timbales are topped with a light balsamic vinaigrette.
Polenta is so versatile and can be served soft right after it is cooked on the stovetop or it can be formed and chilled to create a firm cake that can be crisped in hot oil. In this recipe I serve crisp polenta with wild mushrooms in a white wine-cream sauce.
Pork is the perfect meat to match up with my Caribbean spice mix. This recipe is from my first cookbook and was featured on my restaurant menu for the first few years. Caribbean dishes like this one really highlight intense flavors and bold-bright colors.
Brushcetta comes from the Italian word “bruscare,” which translates to “to roast over coals,” and refers to the toasting of the bread. Thick, larger slices of bread are grilled, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Traditional Bruschetta stops there, but it has become popular to top the toasted bread with everything from tomatoes and basil, to meats and seafood.
Stuffed mussels make a great appetizer and even work as a nice Hors d’Oeuvres. They are rather simple to make, composed of two fillings. The cooked mussels are combined with chopped Serrano ham, garlic and tomatoes and spooned into the shells. They are topped with the second filling, a Mussel-White Sauce (bechamel) made with the reserved cooking liquid from the mussels. The mussels can be made a day ahead of time and finished at the last minute in a frying pan.
Join me in my kitchen as I prepare recipes from my two cookbooks, European foodie trips and explore new inspirations.
