Asian salmon dinner

Tonight for dinner I had some salmon that I wanted to make. I decided I would pair it with broccoli, but I wanted a special way to prepare the broccoli instead of just the regular steamed variety. The recipe I found had an asian theme, so I chose my fish preparation method accordingly. I made Teriyaki Salmon with Broccoli with Oyster Sauce and boiled and buttered cabbage for a base addition. I really liked doing my salmon this way. It was easy to put the salmon skin-side up in a dish and let the fish marinade for 15 minutes while I prepared my broccoli. Then I cooked the salmon in a pan like the recipe said and it came out perfectly and was done quickly. I usually cook my fish in the oven, and although it works it sometimes seems limiting. I liked knowing that I could get skin-on fish and cook it right in a pan with no trouble, and the teriyaki sauce was a great flavor complement. I didn't do the scallion part of the recipe because I didn't have any, but I don't think the recipe really suffered from this, it's just an easy way to prepare the fish. My broccoli with oyster sauce was equally exciting, if not more so. I've tried making this dish before just using oyster sauce and broccoli and it never produced the results I was hoping for...this recipe fixed all that. By mixing the oyster sauce with chicken broth and garlic it made a delicious sauce, very similar to what I am used to in restaurants. I did not add on sesame oil at the end because I didn't think it needed it. The sauce was already good, and I didn't want it to be oily, plus I was concerned that the stronger sesame oil flavor might take over or mute the good flavor I already had going with the oyster sauce and garlic. This is what it all looked like before being consumed happily by me:


But that's not all, I had dessert! Devoted readers may remember when I made chocolate mousse before using this recipe. The results were tasty, but the texture was not quite what I was expecting because the elements remained sort of disconnected from each other. This time I made it again (see, despite the texture last time the taste was worthy of a second chance!) using a different technique. The resulting mousse this time was much more like what I was expecting last time. The texture was smooth, creamy, and dense - it's heaven on a spoon, and it actually looks like the pictures in the recipe. The only thing I did differently was use the blender. Last time I guess I misunderstood the directions and I tried to use a mixer (beaters) to mix the mousse and this mixed it up a lot, but didn't puree the tofu and incorporate it all like the blender did. I just tossed my soft tofu into the blender with my chocolate milk to see if it would work, and/or make a difference, and the improved results were immediately visible. So, if you like chocolate mousse, you should make this recipe, but please remember to use a blender, it's the only way to go! I served mine with strawberries (finally found a use for that other carton!) and it was a great combination (can't go wrong with strawberries and chocolate). Here it was: