My mother always used to say, "In life, if you can count the number of good friends on one hand, you are very fortunate." I am very fortunate, because I have really good friends that I can count on. Lynne Lee is one of them. She and I started working for Dr. Terry Shintani, the Hawaii Diet expert, back in the mid-'90s. As consumer science teachers, we tested many recipes for his cookbooks and did demonstrations for his seminars.

Lynne is still busy cooking and baking for her family. She is also a Pampered Chef distributor and is sometimes called upon to do healthy food demonstrations for Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children. She shared a salmon recipe she created for her mother-in-law. I tested the recipe the other night and really loved the flavor of the salty chung choy (preserved turnip) with the wild salmon. You can find chung choy in the Asian section of the supermarket or in Chinatown markets.

Recently, there has been a greater awareness of the benefits of eating wild salmon. It swims free in the waters of the North Pacific, which provide a rich diet of krill and shrimp. This diet is responsible for the natural pink to orange pigment of the salmon. Colorful salmon contains astaxanthin, a strong antioxidant. Salmon is also high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids and relatively low in fat.

LYNNE'S QUICK ASIAN SALMON