Thai Salmon Salad with Peanut Sauce

A great salad with lots of nutrition and the peanut "saucy" flavor of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Well suited for lunch or a light meal. This salad is meant to have some heat from the chilies, but if you do not like heat, you can certainly replace the hot chilies with mild peppers, like some chopped red or green bell pepper. 

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

1 pound salmon in 2 or 3 fillets (can have skin, which will be removed after cooking)
1 tablespoon peanut oil for the fish
1/2 cup shredded or grated carrot
1 cup shredded cabbage
4 green onions, chopped with the green part
1 firm mango, peeled and chopped (not completely ripened)
2 chili peppers, sliced (serranos or jalapeños are good)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mixed greens, like spinach and kale
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (or 8 to 10 grape tomatoes, halved)
juice of 1 large lime
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, lightly toasted, or finely chopped roasted peanuts
(optional) salt to taste (keep in mind, the dressing has salt from some ingredients)
lime wedges for serving

Dressing/Sauce:

1/3 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 hot chili pepper, stem and seeds removed  
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons honey
a little water

For the dressing/sauce: put all of the ingredients, except water, into a blender; blend together well. If the sauce is too thick, add a tablespoon of water and blend, continue to repeat this step until the desired consistency is reached. 
For the salmon: heat the peanut oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat and fry the salmon on both sides until it is cooked through and is able to be flaked. Set aside to cool.
For the salad: in a large bowl, add the carrot, cabbage, green onions, mango, chili peppers, mixed greens and tomatoes; toss to mix. Squeeze the lime juice over the salad. Flake the salmon and toast the sesame seeds in a dry skillet for about 1 minute (or chop some store bought roasted peanuts and heat them briefly in a dry skillet). Top each serving with some flaked salmon pieces and either some toasted sesame seeds or chopped peanuts. Drizzle some of the dressing over each salad and serve with a wedge or two of lime on the side.

WORD HISTORY:
Dwindle-This word is related to "dead," "death" and "die," all words from Germanic, with the verb "die" either coming to Old English as a borrowing from Old Norse, itself a Germanic language, or as an original English word and receiving emphasis and reinforcement from Old Norse to help it prevail as the primary word for "to lose one's life." "Dwindle" goes back to Indo European "dheu," which meant, "to die." This gave Old Germanic "dwinanan," meaning, "to lessen, to diminish, to waste away." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dwinan," meaning, "to waste away, to fade away." This then became "dwinen" and then "dwine," with the "dwindle" form showing up in William Shakespeare's play "Henry IV, published in about 1598." Exactly why the suffix was added is a mystery to me. Shakespeare's use of "dwindle" certainly boosted overall usage of the word. Some relatives in other Germanic languages: Low German "verdwienen" (to disappear, to lessen), Dutch "verdwijnen" (to disappear), West Frisian "ferdwine" ("to disappear"), Icelandic "dvina" (to diminish, to lessen, to decrease). NOTES: 1) I have found "reference" to a Danish form "tvine," meaning "to pine away," but sources are few and sketchy, so I can't confirm it as a modern form. Old Norse, the forerunner of the modern North Germanic languages, had "dvina" (to diminish, to lessen). 2) I cannot find a form in German, including in Old High German, the ancestor of modern German, but that "might" be because the word did not come into extensive use before the dialects that became German pushed southward. Further, there was obviously no later borrowing of the word from Low German.