Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon

Gwen — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:58:14 +0000

Ok, ok, so this recipe is almost straight out of this month’s bon appetit. Like, cover image, straight out. And the only reason it’s “almost” rather than “exactly”, is that I lacked some of the ingredients in my pantry and there were no sugar snap peas at the farmer’s market on saturday (maybe next week, i was told). The big difference is that bon appetit’s version is made with snap peas and pea tendrils. I swapped in pea sprouts since I had some in my fridge, along with some nice bloomsdale spinach from this week’s CSA veggie box. The salmon is marinated and then broiled on the same pan, which makes prep and cleanup a snap, and I’m pleased to say the finished dish truly looks glamorous enough to be on a newsstand.

Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon
Adapted from Bon Appetit’s much longer titled recipe, which you can find here.
Serves 2

1/4 cup Asian Sweet Chili Sauce, such as mae ploy
2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon mirin
2 8-oz center cut salmon filets with skin
1 tsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 bunches bloomsdale spinach leaves, substitute with 2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 cup pea sprouts

Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil, or lightly oiled regular foil. Place salmon fillets skin side down on the prepared sheet pan and season with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, stir together the sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar and the mirin. Spoon marinade over the salmon and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat broiler. Spoon any marinade remaining on the baking sheet over the salmon fillets. Broil salmon without turning until browned at corners and the fish is almost opaque in the center, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the grapeseed and sesame oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds until aromatic. Add spinach leaves and cook, stirring regularly for 2 minutes. Add the pea sprouts and stir til just wilted, about 1 minute. Add the remaining soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and fresh black pepper, then turn off heat and set aside.

Voila!

I rounded out our meal with a sort of deconstructed salad. The greens are a beautiful head of red-tipped romaine, tossed with a light asian-flavored dressing and sesame seeds along with some avocado slices and some simple sunomono cucumbers. It was the perfect crisp and bright companion to the buttery-textured, sweet and salty salmon. Enjoy!

Poached Salmon with Herbed Yogurt Sauce

Gwen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:30:38 +0000

This might just be the perfect weeknight dinner. Healthy, light yet filling, and lightning fast. Enough said. No really, let’s just let the picture do the talking.

Poached Salmon with Herbed Yogurt Sauce
Serves 2 lucky someones

For the Salmon:
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups water

1 bay leaf
6-7 parsley stems, leaves removed
1 lemon, sliced

1 tbsp whole black peppercorns (optional)

1 tsp dried dill (optional, but adds those lovely, tiny flecks on the cooked salmon)

1 lb salmon filet, either whole or portioned in two

For the Herbed Yogurt Sauce:

3/4 cup non-fat greek style yogurt, such as Fage

Juice and zest of half a lemon

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp chopped fresh dill

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1 tsp honey

1 clove garlic, finely minced

In a large, shallow saucepan over medium-high heat, combine all ingredients for salmon except the fish fillets and bring to a simmer. Carefully add the salmon fillets, skin side down, making sure they’re just barely covered by the liquid. Add 1 cup more water if necessary. Bring the liquid back to a simmer, then lower heat to medium to keep at a gentle simmer and cook for 8 minutes. If your fish is thicker than 1 inch, it might require an additional 2 -3 minutes. Turn the heat off and allow the fish the rest in the liquid an additional 5 minutes. This allows the center of the fish to finish cooking, while not overcooking the exterior of the fillet. Do be careful about overcooking this fish. In my opinion, poached salmon is at its best when the center is still the slightest bit translucent. Besides, the hot water rest also keeps it nice and warm for serving while you finish up your side dishes. Here’s a shot of the fish mid-cooking.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the herbed yogurt sauce and stir well to combine. Whenever I add raw garlic to a sauce that won’t be cooked, I recommend grating it with your microplane so no one bites down on a big chunk of garlic (aka, the opposite of yum). Season this well with salt and pepper since no salt went on the fish itself. Tonight I had a little creme fraiche on hand, so I made my sauce with half yogurt/half creme fraiche. This will also work with fairly good success with sour cream, if you happen to be running short on the yogurt, though the sauce will be thinner. Here’s a shot of that tasty sauce:

So that’s really all there is to it. We roasted some asparagus on the side and whipped up a delicious herb salad with lemon honey-dijon dressing, which all complimented the salmon quite fabulously. And voila, a champion’s dinner in just 15 minutes.

i heart yum » fish

Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon

Poached Salmon with Herbed Yogurt Sauce