4 six ounce salmon steaks
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon ginger puree
1 tablespoon lemongrass
1 tablespoon coriander seed
2 teaspoons soy sauce
sea salt

1. Preheat grill to medium.
2. Prepare salmon steaks by removing the center bone and the ribs attached to it. Cut a 1" slice off of the bottom of one side of the steak, leaving the skin. On the other side of the steak, cut 1" of the skin off of the salmon. Curl the meat-trimmed side into the center of the steak and wrap the other side around, forming a circular patty. Secure with twine.
3. Crush coriander seed with a pestle and mortar and add honey, ginger, lemongrass and soy sauce to it.
4. Season salmon with sea salt and place on the grill. Cook until the meat can be gently removed with a 2 prong fork, then rotate 90 degrees.
5. Flip the salmon steaks and baste with prepared sauce. Again, rotate 90 degrees when the steak can be easily removed from the grill.
6. Continue grilling to desired doneness, basting occasionally. Discard twine before serving.

Makes 4 servings

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound kale, rinsed with stems removed
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted
salt and pepper

1. Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
2. Add the kale and cover, cooking until slightly wilted, about 1-2 minutes.
3. Stir the kale and add the soy sauce and sesame seeds. Cover and cook until kale has wilted to half its size. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 4 servings

Inspired by another Good Eats episode, I shelled out the ridiculous price for a salmon steak and tried a fancy, filet-mignon style preparation. This looked surprisingly easy on the show, but proved a little more difficult without the aide of incredibly sharp knives. Still, for my first and only attempt at making this sort of rounded salmon steak, I think I did fairly well. The Honey Lemongrass Salmon Steaks cooked up beautifully, though with a slight flare up that left a bit of charring. The burning marinade reminded me of campfire, since it was reminiscent of toasting marshmallows.

The sauce that I made was relatively simple, but complimented the salmon very well. The flavor seemed to really be infused into the meat and worked with the smoke from the grill quite nicely. In hindsight this may have benefited a little from a little bit of green onion, but other than that I'd say it was perfect. This could easily go with a wide variety of sides; asparagus, peas, squash, potatoes, rice and so on, but I decided to cook up some Sesame Kale.

To be honest, I've never eaten nor prepared kale before, so I'm not even entirely sure if what I grabbed under the "kale" header in the supermarket was, in fact, kale. From the pictures I have seen on the internet, what I bought seems far more purple and lettuce-like. So, without knowing otherwise, this may have just been a sesame fried purple lettuce. I'm sure this is very funny to those of you in the know, like watching me eat sour cream for the first time under the impression that it was smooth cottage cheese. The wilted greens (for lack of a better term) did not really have much of a taste to them, which made me instantly like it better than Swiss Chard. Beyond that I really don't have much to say about it. It looked pretty and I did eat it, but it seemed as little more than a decorative garnish that dirtied another pan.