Roasted Fish Wrapped in Spring Rolls

Why did this dish seem like it took forever to prepare? I think it's because we were working on all the other dishes as well. I mean, what's so hard about washing some lettuce and mint leaves and buying some fried fish from Ranch 99? :P I guess there's also a technique to rolling up the spring rolls as well that might be better learned in person rather than through a carefully worded blog post, so just let me know if you need a lesson! Trang's recipe for our main course below.

Roasted Fish Ingredients:
1 whole cat fish, cleaned
1 bunch green onion, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Spring Rolls Ingredients:
Rice or tapioca paper
Green leaf lettuce
Mint
Rice noodles (vermicelli)

Instructions:
1. Brush the fish with olive oil and roast over high heat either on a barbeque or in the over. An easy alternative is to ask your asian grocery store to fry the fish for you.

2. In a bowl, combine green onions and olive oil, seal with cling wrap, and microwave on high for 90 to 120 seconds, until green onion is wilted. When fish is cooked through, smear the green onion mixture over the outside of the fish. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts.

3. Serve fish whole with spring roll ingredients and dipping sauce, and allow guests to wrap their own spring rolls.

**Traditional dipping sauces for this dish: Nuoc Mam/Nuoc Cham (Fish sauce vinaigrette) or Mam Nem (Fermented Anchovy Sauce), but for the uninitiated, peanut sauce is usually a crowd pleaser.

Pan-seared Salmon Fillets with Garlic and Basil

I really enjoyed the crispy skin on the salmon once you take it off the stove. Walter says that you need to really pat down the salmon with paper towel and make sure that the fish is nice and dry before you start to pan-sear it. It doesn't look like much in this picture (due to our poor presentation skills), but it's a dish with a nice flavor without requiring too many ingredients. Check out Walter's recipe below.

Ingredients:

1/2 - 1 lb. Salmon fillet (try to find with even thickness

Garlic (minced)

Basil leafs (cleaned and dried)

Salt (preferably kosher)

Directions:

* Scale the skin and clean. Briefly (1-2 seconds) soak it in rice wine or white wine.

* Pat salmon dry. Then wrap fillet in paper towel skin-side up for several minutes.

* Cut into 1.5 inch slices (perpendicular to the direction of the spine)

* Sprinkle salt and wrap in paper towel again. It's important the skin be dry.

* Heat pan to medium high. When hot, add oil, garlic, and basil. After about 30 seconds, add salmon skin side up. After a few minutes, when the bottom is golden brown, turn over so skin is on bottom for a few more minutes.