MangO Salmon Salad

The other day, I was contacted by Michelle of Bleeding Espresso about the O foods contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. The goal is to spread awareness by posting a recipe with a food that starts or ends with the letter O. I thought this sounded like a great idea for a great cause and started pondering what I could possibly submit. At the same time, I was perusing the Williams Sonoma Fish book and noticed an incredibly simple dish of pan-roasted salmon fillets in mango juice. I imagined that mango salmon could be placed on a crisp, fresh salad, and I realized that mango ends in O.

I wasn’t kidding about how simple this is, and there really isn’t much to the recipe. You simply place some salmon fillets in a glass dish and pour mango juice over them. Let the salmon sit in the mango juice for 20 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Then, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, remove the salmon from the mango bath and dry each piece, and place the salmon flesh-side down in the skillet. Turn the heat down to medium and sear the salmon for five minutes. Carefully turn the fillets and place the skillet in the hot oven for about three minutes. Pour the mango juice from the glass dish into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let the juice simmer for a few minutes to thicken slightly. Remove the skillet from the oven and pour the simmered juice over the salmon. Chopped garlic chives garnished the salmon, and since my garlic chive plants have flowers right now, I garnished with those as well.

For the salad, I made a lime shallot vinaigrette which was tossed with mixed baby lettuces. That formed a bed on each plate. While grocery shopping, I looked for something to sit in the center of the salad and found some delicate, little arugula micro greens that were locally grown at Bella Verdi Farms. Those were also tossed with some of the vinaigrette and were then placed in the center of the salad. Pieces of mango sauce-covered salmon were placed around the mound of micro greens. For contrast, flavor, and crunch, I sprinkled on thinly sliced red fresno chiles and green onions and some chopped cashews.

CONTEST RULES

O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

• 1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;
  
• 2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);
  
  
• 3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle)

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:

• One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

• Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
  
  
• The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).



• There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
  
  
• In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
  
  
• When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.
  

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.

Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.