Salmon teriyaki with paksoi and kohlrabi

A culinary experiment and product of the month combined in one message. We do now how to blog efficiently. ;) Actually I want to discuss 2 ingredients of the month: kohlrabi and paksoi. During my exam period, I've 'experimented' twice with paksoi and it turns out to be an all-round vegetable. As regards kohlrabi: it was one big mystery for me: I haven't eaten it before, I haven't prepared it yet. I didn't know anything about it. Until now...

Paksoi

Paksoi used to be an exotic vegetable. Originally from the oriental countries this cabbage is now popular in many wok dishes. Nowadays paksoi is grown in Belgium and other European countries as well. It combines excellently with punchy ingredients like ginger and chili and has a sweet, spinach-like taste. And it turned out that you can experiment a lot with it, because it can be cooked in different sorts of dishes.
First, I made a paksoi and leek mash and it had a refined and delicious taste! Just season it well with pepper, salt and nutmeg and you get a lovely mash.
My second dish was a tabbouleh with paksoi, field salad, garlic and ras-el-hanout (an oriental spice mix). This tasted well too, but the subtle taste of the paksoi was dominated by the robust spice. Not the best combination though.

Kohlrabi

The great mystery in my teriyaki dish was this grass green tuber crop. It's a member of the cabbage family and has a spicy, radish-like taste. It goes very well in summer salads. I tried to use it along with paksoi in a wok dish.
It's unnecessary to remove the leaves because they contain most of the vitamins of the kohlrabi. The inside is quite soft and you can slice them in small cubes or slices and just stir fry them without parboiling it first.





This is my ingredient list (for 3 persons):

- 3 fresh fillets of salmon
- 1 small kohlrabi
- 1 paksoi (with the green leaves too)
- 100 g shiitake mushrooms (or chestnut mushrooms)
- 100 g soy bean sprouts
- some fresh ginger
- 3 tb. soy sauce
- 1 tb. rice wine
- 2 tb. sesame oil
- 1 tb. cane sugar
-peanut oil to stir fry
- some sesame seeds and fresh coriander for the finishing

• Slice the salmon in 3 cm pieces. Season them a little with pepper. 
• Make the teriyaki marinade: mix the soy sauce, sugar, rice wine and sesame oil into a smooth sauce. Marinate the slices of salmon into it for 15 minutes.
• Then, prepare the vegetables: chop the paksoi and the kohlrabi into tiny cubes, slice the mushrooms into small slices and chop the ginger and the green paksoi leaves very thin.

• Next, heat some peanut oil in a frying pan and stir fry the vegetables one by one. Start with the kohlrabi, when it's cooked but still crispy, put them out of the pan and add the paksoi. do this with all the vegetables.
• In the mean time, bake the slices of salmon an a separate pan (to avoid they become sticky in the frying pan) until their almost ready. Put aside.
• When the last vegetable is frying (normally the mushrooms), add all the others, add the teriyaki sauce in which you marinated the salmon.
• Let cook for about 1 minute and gently add the salmon to the vegetable mix.
• Finish with extra sesame seeds, freshly chopped coriander leaves and serve with Japanese udon noodles.
• Enjoy your meal!

The result was a powerful wok dish in which the spicy taste of the kohlrabi goes well with the crispy soy bean sprouts and paksoi. I must warn you though: if you're not very fond of the typical flavour of radish, you maybe don't like the kohlrabi in this recipe.