Cooking: Smoked Salmon + Peanut Butter -- Who Woulda Thunk It?

You're at work. It's lunch time. You wonder what to eat that is easy on the wallet and relatively healthy given the sedentary nature of the job. What if at least once a week, you didn't have to worry about it and got a perfectly healthy home-cooked meal literally handed to you on a platter?

Yes indeed. I was fortunate to be part of a group that takes turns cooking healthy lunches for each other. I have so far loved both the eating and cooking parts.

So this was a recent contribution. I was inspired by a pretty standard appetizer served at Seoul's Japanese-style robatayakis, which are essentially like izakayas but a specific type of izakaya.

I took a butter lettuce leaf, placed a slice of smoked salmon, some thinly sliced onions that have been soaked in water to extract their potency, a few capers and last but not least, a generous dollop of good ol' peanut butter!

I swear it tastes infinitely better than it sounds. There's something about pairing salty smoked salmon with nutty peanut butter (either chunky or creamy would work), punctuated by briny capers and crunchy, mild onions -- all wrapped up in a refreshing butter lettuce leaf. It's a low-carb dream.

I didn't pair this unlikely pairing with any drinks like in Seoul's bars but presented a warm butternut squash soup to warm the soul on an autumn day.