Salmon again? Yes!

Everyone who knows me and follows my cooking ideas knows that I am a Thai cooking fan. I had the opportunity to follow several cooking classes and many stays and Chef discussions during the years in the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. Many many years of stopovers in Thailand taught me a good knowledge of Thai culture and food.

Several times I was asked by friends for my „Thai salmon in coconut sauce“ recipe. It was so often a dinner party hit and a delicious showstopper when we had guests. Here in Uruguay we have summertime now and change dishes slowly to the climate requirements. This rich and exotic, fresh salmon recipe is easy to cook, easy to change to your personal taste, and always mouthwatering delicious. Here it is, made for 4 persons.

Ingredients.

1/4 cup olive oil
4 pieces of salmon filets, about 250 gram each
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
1 tablespoon of lemongrass, just the white part, cut in fine rings
2 tablespoons of chilli-garlic paste
2 cups of fresh coconut milk
1/2 a cup of freshly grated coconut flakes
2 teaspoons of Thai fish sauce
1 tablespoon of fresh-pressed lime juice
4-6 slices of lime
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro leaves
salt and pepper to taste

How to do.

In this recipe, the salmon is fried without skin, as you can see in the left picture. Heat up the olive oil in a medium heated pan. Season the fillets on both sides with salt and pepper, then fry, with the skin side up, on each (2-3 minutes) side till its nicely browned and the fillets are just cooked through. How to do it – you can look in an earlier post, like to see down here. Just click on the link.

  My little trick is to seal the sides of the filet also. Takes off the “not well looking” white foam and keeps the moisture inside. Note the right fillet of the four, this is already turned and well cooked.

Salmon – My Answer

Take the salmon fillets out of the pan and set aside. Discard about 80-90% of the remaining oil and use then the pan to prepare the sauce. First we fry, over low heat, the garlic and the ginger for about 1 minute. Then add the lemongrass and fry another 4-5 minutes. Finally add the chilli-garlic paste and mix all well together, about 30 seconds.

Now mix in the coconut milk, Thai fish sauce, and the fresh lime juice. Give it a good stir and have a taste. It should taste Umami, that means a well-balanced taste of sweet, sour, spicy, and salty.  This balance is very important for the success of this dish.

Finally, add the chopped cilantro ( I always use the double amount as stated in this recipe) and the lime slices. Stir well and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. The sauce will then just start to thicken. That’s the moment to put back in the salmon fillets.

After carefully placing the salmon back into the pan, spoon the sauce over the fish fillets and let all simmer for another 3 to 4 minutes. That will help to warm up the fish and cook it finally through. And the sauce should thicken a bit more, we don’t like it watery. If you like, as I do often, you can now sprinkle some coconut flakes and some more cilantro leaves over the dish.

Try this recipe, it is easy to cook and sooo delicious, trust me.

Tips.

To your memory: Sweet = coconut milk. Sour = lime juice. Spicy = chilli-garlic paste. Salty = fish sauce. The balance of these 4 spices creates the Umami taste experience. In case you used too much of one spice, naturalize first with coconut milk, then build up the taste again.

            A nice side dish is baked potato cookies with green grilled asparagus – or lovely white rice with peas.

Leftover sauce can be refrigerated for some days and used on any kind of other seafood or vegetarian dish. Instead of salmon (as above) this recipe is delicious with prawns or shrimps also, it’s really Thai. Instead of slices of lime use basil leaves and slices of chilli !!