The idea for this recipe came to me while enjoying my husband’s birthday dinner. I’d made him a fancy skirt steak pinwheel, but I opted for salmon, not being a big beef eater. For the vegetable, I made green beans with Chinese sausage. That, combined with my salmon, was to die for. I know you’re not supposed to end sentences with a preposition, but I’m not kidding.

So I decided to turn the ingredients into a stir fry in the spring, but using in-season asparagus. It’s a really easy dish, just be careful so as not to break up the salmon filets too much. You want them to look pretty among the asparagus and sausage slices.

Salmon and Chinese Sausage (Lap Xuong) Stir Fry with Asparagus
Serves 2 or 4

4-5 ounces asparagus
6 ounces Chinese sausages
1 tablespoon garlic-infused olive oil or extra-virgin
1 small white onion, sliced thinly into wedges
2 salmon filets, skinned, about 7-8 ounces each
Salt
Pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon roasted sesame seed oil
Sesame seeds, optional
Cooked white rice

Cut the asparagus spears into lengths approximately 2″ long. Steam them until just snap-tender. Remove from the steam source, dip into cold water for 30 seconds, and set aside.

Peel the skins off of the sausage. Slice into 1/3” slices.

Add the oil to a fairly large skillet and sauté the sausage and onion slices over medium heat for about 6 minutes, or until soft and some of the sausage grease has been released.

Add the salmon filets, pushing the sausage and onions aside. Season with salt and pepper.

After about 5 minutes, lower the heat, flip over the salmon and after a few minutes, gently break into bite-sized pieces. Continue cooking over low heat until salmon is done; don’t let it overcook. Toss in the asparagus and add the soy sauce and sesame seed oil.

Stir everything gently and heat through.

Serve over rice, and sprinkle on sesame seeds.

I served this stir fry with my favorite cold sake – Nigori.