Idea sex. Today I listened to an interview with Jason Silva, short shooting philosopher de you tube, whose “shots of awe” videos, offer people a glimmer of existentialism in a 3 minute quip. He’s a passionate dude, you can tell, this is what he lives for, spreading novel ideas to help our society transcend the murky and rise to our true potential. In this particular interview, he was talking about this concept of ideas having sex and forming new creations, this is modern day creativity. We aren’t forming new ideas, we’re simply remixing old ones and making them new again. I find this to really ring true when it comes to creating recipes. Sometimes I think I need to create things which no one has done before. Isn’t it interesting that at this point in our evolution, there is less species diversity than ever before on the planet, yet, more than ever, there are also more people attempting to create new dishes that will set them apart. This is part of the reason why I’m passionate about learning wildcrafting and attaining wild meat. Just because we can drive our cars to the store and get whatever we want, doesn’t mean it isn’t wildly rewarding to know what we can eat from our local environment.
Famous Michelin Star restaurants around the world are starting to shift their focus on to wild and local foods because they are the only things left which offer a bit of uniqueness when it comes to cuisine. That uniqueness is their job, you don’t become one of those top ranking restaurants by having the best mac and cheese rendition around. That is unless it’s infused with wild horseradish and garlic mustard, filled with wild truffle oil and artisan cheese, perhaps some heritage variety red fife handmade noodle and thrown in a tiny ramekin! When it comes to idea sex, there’s nothing wrong with it, I would even venture to say that it’s why we thrive as a community of food bloggers and recipe creators. Nobody is going to be offended that you tried to recreate kung pao chicken. I have an arsenal of different caesar salad dressing recipes all based around the core ingredients of a classic version, but I couldn’t tell you who invented caesar dressing…I don’t think it was caesar by the way. The point I’m trying to make is that I could never create something which is identical to anything, even if I tried, nor will I ever create the same dish twice. This is one of the reasons why I love cooking, so many factors influence the outcome, and those factors will never be exactly the same on any given occasion. So no matter how many times I make the recipe for blackened salmon, it will always be unique. My fears of creating unoriginal goodies have been quashed, because there’s no such thing!
I recipe tested this to make sure it was wonderful. Pfft, and to eat it on more than one occasion in a week. Perfectly satisfies the garlic tooth. The combination of cajun spices blend so well with this creamy mock caesar. I actually have nothing at all against mayo, or parmesan for that matter. But I’m staying away from dairy until the end of the month and truly brazil nut parmesan is better than the real thing. Yeah I said it. Not only are brazil nuts super nutritious, they also have this great texture and mixed with a bit of garlic and salt it’s hard not to eat just that as an appetizer.
*If you want to veganify ( made that word up) this avocado caesar salad dressing, simply omit the fish sauce and Worcester substitute 1 tbs of miso and 1 Tbs of tamari or coconut aminos.
- 2 ripe avocados
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 Tbs lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbs water
- 1 Tbs fish sauce
- 1 Tbs worcester sauce
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp fresh cracked pepper
- 1 Tbs dijon mustard
- ½ cup brazil nuts
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor and whip until smooth. Alternatively you could mash up the avocado by hand and mix everything in until well incorporated.
- *This is enough dressing for 2 salads, if you want less just divide the recipe in half
- * vegans could sub fish sauce and worcester for 1 Tbs of miso 1 Tbs tamari and a sprinkling of your favourite seaweed.
- Add brazil nuts,garlic and salt to a blender or food processor and pulse until a fine meal akin to parmesan forms.
Ingredients
- 2 salmon filets
- 1 Tbs coconut oil
- cajun spice rub-
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp onion salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Melt coconut oil in a skillet on medium heat.
- Mix spices together and spread them out on a plate. Dip both sides of your salmon filets in this spice mix.
- When the pan is nice and hot add the salmon. Turn down the heat.
- Cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of your salmon. For thin pieces start with 2 minutes per side for thicker filets go with 3 or 4.
- * this recipe easily doubles or triples if your feeding more people.
