Student dishes out a winner
'Read and you will soon taste the fruits of reading,'' advised third former Connie Yang Wang-yi, who recently won a student cookery award.
The young, talented cook said she had studied a wide range of recipes and cook books before coming up with the idea for her winning dish, 'Summer Rainbow Salmon Rolls', at the Norwegian Salmon Healthy Lunch Cooking Contest earlier this summer.
The cold dish consists of two elements: salmon rolls and salad. The surprise is however an artistically arranged ice base, with Connie getting the inspiration from a book about making ice-cream.
'I did not confine myself to any particular kind of cook books. When I came across the idea of an ice base originally designed for ice-cream, I borrowed it for my dish,'' said Connie with a broad smile.
'It is cool and its vivid colours provide a summer flavour.'
The ice base comprises flower petals and leaves. It therefore can be very creative, depending on the cook's mood. In the competition, Connie used roses and white chrysanthemum. The dazzling red became a striking contrast to the soft white. But when she made a special dish for Young Post last week, she replaced chrysanthemum with lemon zest. The yellow tinge actually strengthened the fresh scent of the fruit.
Before the competition, Connie also compared a number of recipes, looking for the best solution to overcome the fishy smell. She invited her teachers and schoolmates to be the guinea pigs, and finally discovered the best seasoning for salmon: a few drops of lemon juice.
All on her own, Connie beat the other 14 teams in the cooking contest and snatched the Media Award. Both the stunning colours of her dish and her skills left a good impression on the adjudicators.
Recipe for salmon rolls:
Ingredients: 1 salmon fillet; cucumber; 1/3 carrot; corn; Japanese dried seaweed
Seasoning: Salt and pepper, a few drops of lemon juice
1. Preheat the oven to 200C;
2. Cut the salmon fillet into four thin slices and marinate with salt and pepper for 30 minutes. Add a few drops of lemon juice to improve the flavour.
3. Shred the cucumber and carrot. Boil them for five minutes. Dry them. Leave to cool.
4. Place the seasoned salmon evenly on one piece of seaweed.
5. On another piece, lay out the cucumber, carrot shreds and corns.
Place (5) flat on (4). Roll it up.
Butter the platinum foil. Wrap the salmon roll. Bake for 15 minutes.
