Recipe - Salmon Katsu

Salmon Katsu - By Thea Starr

Living in the Pacific Northwest enables us up here to have easy access to a variety of salmon.
I grew up eating it in abundance so certain times of the year I do get a jonesing for it.

My kids absolutely love eating salmon katsu. Its healthy & naughty all in one.

Things you'll need:

1/2 Coho Salmon cutlets
2 cups Panko
1 cup Flour
1 tablespoon Sea Salt
1 egg beaten with 1/4 cup of water to thin it down
Canola Oil for frying
Tonkatsu Sauce (Optional)

First prepare your fish:

Cut the salmon into finger food sizes.

On the side get your panko-flour & egg-water mixtures going:

Panko, flour & sea salt mixture

One beaten egg plus 1/4 cup water to thin it.

Go ahead and heat up your oil on medium heat in a deep frying pan.
I do not recommend using a deep fryer for this recipe.

Now back to the fish.
Go ahead and dip your cuts into the egg batter individually and then roll it in the panko mixture.

Cover the salmon with egg & panko mixtures

Do this step TWICE.

Why twice? I just find that the breading needs a double dip to get everything totally covered.

Once your oil is hot go ahead and set the salmon in the pan.

Fry those babies up!

It takes about 2 minutes on each side. The telltale sign is the browning.  But if you happen to have really thick cuts you might want to wait a tad bit longer.

Let them rest on a clean paper towel prior to eating.

After they are all browned up let the rest on a clean paper towel prior to eating.

Drizzle a bit of tonkatsu sauce if you're so inclined. It tastes wonderful!

Tonkatsu Sauce

Easy peasy!

I serve this on the side of a nice warm bowl of simple udon soup:

Salmon Katsu with udon soup

A fun fact:
The term katsu is short for katsuretsu - which means cutlet in Japanese.

I hope you'll give a go!

Thea

For more recipes please check out our recipe page.

Motherhood Truths

You know one thing that sucks about being a mom, is having to eat the butt end of the bread because no one else in the house will.
Its like kids are all born with an affliction against bread crusts.

Add that to my list of "Things that I am patiently waiting for when my kids move out list".


Thea

Recipes to come!

The beginning of a peach & blackberry cobbler.

I just wanted to toss this up here as a teaser. I have been snapping up tons of pictures of dishes that I have been wanting to share recipes for. 

I also will be transitioning my recipes page from my main blog. 

So keep your eyes peeled for those. 

Tons of folks are already singing the praises of the fall weather. Warm soups & crock pots put a smile on my face. ^_^

-Thea

Small Space Planter

Sorry for this quickie.  (I've a little dental saga for a couple of day.)
But in my pain killer daze I happened upon this:

Photo from Apartment Therapy

I wish I would've thought of this when I was a city apartment dweller. I longed for flowers or just something that grew in dirt when we used to live in a basement apartment. This seems like it would be highly customizable to your space. I'm planning on suggesting something like this to my mom who has a terraced yard with some "dead" spaces.

-Thea

Well, Hello :)

Welcome to The Grey Area Mom!

I'm Thea, nice to meet you.
So to give you a schpeel on what this blog is supposed to be about and to give you reasons why you should read it here goes nothing:

Ever try to read a mommy blog and end up feeling inferior and unsophisticated after?  Or maybe you end up feeling you've neglected your children because you weren't able to homeschool or spend every waking hour with them? Or do you ever feel like a bad spouse because you didn't cook a 4 course meal and served up a hot bowl of Top Ramen instead?

Yeah, me too. Not to knock those ladies who can do all of the above and not to knock who are the extreme opposite of that too. But what about us in the in between? The grey area. The ones who aren't the moms who wear high heels to the grocery store or are so hipsterish that it hurts. You know what I mean? I wanted to have a fun place to talk about the things the other mommy blogs don't talk about or censor without over doing and seeming like a sex deprived manic depressant. Do those women actually read what they write?
I'm just a normal small town gal that has quite the ride thus far in life and I want to share what has gotten me this far. Maybe I'll even poke fun at somethings because life is short and we should smile and giggle as much as possible.  Its okay to laugh and mess up!

I've invited a couple of my friends to join me in this little blogging adventure. Me and my two J's!

Jenny & Jessi. I feel we each have unique perspectives on parenthood and life in general. (Individual interviews to come!) 

How do we all know each other you might wonder.
Well, Jenny & I hail from an Island in Washington State. We're both Navy Brats and attended elementary school together.
I remember thinking Jenny had the most beautiful hair when we were little. Even though she kinda reminded me of that girl from Poltergeist. After our "chaotic high school years" we've reunited and intend on getting matching unicorn tattoos!

Jessi & I met each other through an alternative parenting group in Seattle. Sounds like a match.com kind of thing huh? But it is true and our families have been close ever since. We even have matching Mexican style mumu dresses. Now that is friendship!

Thanks so much for checking us out and I hope you'll be back for more. We'll be sharing recipes, stories, family projects and even VIDEOS so you can giggle along with us.

Yee haw!
Thea