Salmon don’t rate highly on many people’s list of tasty fish. Cooked incorrectly, salmon can be fishy in flavour and chewy in texture. Some people also get turned off by the blood line, but this is easily removed. This is an incredibly simple recipe for cooking Australian salmon that should convert even the most stubborn salmon-haters. I have to credit Hamish for this one, and note that it’s also an incredibly delicious sauce for any fried or deep-fried fish.
This recipe is most suited to fish of around one kilo, but cooked correctly, bigger salmon are still good for this recipe. Serves 3-4 with sides.
Ingredients
Fillets from 1×1-1.5kg salmon, skinned, deboned and with most of the blood line removed
Butter for frying the salmon
Soy sauce
Chilli
Honey
Garlic
Yep, 6 ingredients, so no excuses for not trying this one.
Pour a few tablespoons of soy sauce into a bowl, add 1 clove chopped garlic, 1 chopped hot chilli and 1 teaspoon of honey. Mix it all up for a few minutes until the honey has dissolved. You may wish to taste it at this stage to ensure it’s not too hot. If you think it might be, remove some of the chilli. However, IMO, the hotter the better for this recipe.
Fry the salmon in butter until the outside of the salmon is golden brown. It’s important to cook it HOT so that you can acheive this golden brown seal on the outiside while ensuring that the fish is moist and perfectly cooked on the inside. It’s ok if the fillets of fish break up a bit in the pan. The important thing is to get lots of the nice golden brown seal, which adds a beautiful flavor and texture to the dish.
Serve and let your guests teaspoon the sauce over their fish. I can guarantee they’ll be spooning away until all their fish is gone. This is a great dish to have with some steamed broccolini or bok choy. For carbobhydrates, this dish would also work well on some steaming fragrant rice.
Salmon are, in my opinion, one of the most underrated table fish. They are also probably a lot more sustainable to eat than some of our other commonly encountered species. They’re also great fun to catch, easy to clean and are packed pull of healthy goodness. Enjoy!
Lee, August 2011
This recipe completely changed my mind on Aussie Salmon. Pan seared to a golden brown finish and then drizzled with plenty of ‘Asian sauce’ … yum! I prefer a generous chunk of finely-chopped ginger to garlic, and so does the lady friend;)
Love your blog. Being from Inverloch we get lots of Salmon in the winter they are definitely underated as atable fish -of course it is best to bleed them on capture – and as long as you don’t overcook them they taste great – in fact they are good as Sashimi
Thanks Rick. I tried them as sashimi once…Hamish cut some up and we had it with some squeezed lemon, salt and pepper. Have the salmon turned up down your way yet? I’ve been meaning to get down to my ‘local’ beach near Bermagui and have a spin. Cheers, Lee