I do something quite similar and it is delicious. Instead of chili oil I use sesame oil, and also some sugar. My recipe also calls for chopped coriander; I use Indian borage (plectraanthus amboinicus) because my garden is always full of it.
First, buy good salmon: Red (sockeye) and king (chinook) are the best choices, silver (coho) third. Do not buy pink or chum salmon unless you are really desperate, and never buy Atlantic salmon. Try to avoid farmed salmon, if you can.
For salmon that’s not too rare, but still juicy: put a knob of butter and perhaps a bit of olive oil in a heavy nonstick skillet. Heat on medium until the butter stops foaming. Slide your salmon filet into the fat and let it cook for about three minutes. Turn and cook for another three minutes. If it still has skin on one side, flip it back over; with a spatula, attempt to flake the salmon along the fine lines of fat that you see. If it doesn’t flake apart, let it saute another minute. By now, the fish should flake apart and you’ll see that it looks reddish-pink inside. It’s done. If it has turned light pink, it’s overcooked.
This can take some trial and error to get it right for you.
One of my favorite things to do is just to cook the salmon until it’s done, then break it up into small pieces and make salmon cakes out of it by mixing with either crushed saltines or Panko, egg, green onions, either lemon grass or lemon zest, a bit hot paprika or cayenne, and thyme. Fry them in butter until warm through and serve with aioli or cocktail sauce.
My wife cribbed a recipe from somewhere that involves poaching it in the oven, having wrapped it in parchment paper with some lemon and herbs. Don’t recall the temperature or cooking time, but it works well!
I came in here to say exactly this. After you throw the plank in the fire, you can use the fire to grill yourself some knockwurst.
That’s a technique called cooking en papilotte, and works well with most any kind of fish.
Twisting a fork in it to see if it separates is a test for OVER-done-ness. Serve it before it gets that far.
Poach it – Bring a big pot of water to a boil, turn it off, and then put the fish in it to poach for about ten minutes. Serve it with a sauce that will impart the desired seasonings.
I do it in my toaster oven set on broil. Skin side up for 5 minutes, peel the now-crispy skin off. Flip the fish over and liberally sprinkle Johnny’s Alaskan Salmon Seasoning or lemon pepper. Broil that side for four minutes, so still quite pinkish in the middle. I plate it with a dollop of bearnaise or hollandaise on the side. Delicious.
If you have a less-robust toaster oven than my Krups, increase the time to about 8 and 6 minutes. Or use your oven broiler.
Yes, the skin must be crispy so it literally (yes, lit-er-ally) melts in your mouth. If you can’t or won’t eat the skin, well you just don’t deserve the fish because that is the best part!
Oh and don’t forget to pull out the pinbones. Nothing sucks more than a mouthful of sharp toothpicks interspersed with yummy salmon flesh.
Sounds good, I think the good thing about the method is that it allows wide experimentation with the marinade. The soy, garlic and ginger are absolute musts, but after that anything goes.
There’s a fair amount of difference between raw and medium rare.
Costco has these pre-marinated (a mild BBQ marinade, NOT like BBQ sauce, more like the seasoning itself) wild salmon fillets, skin on and pre-portioned and for what they are and what they cost they are pretty great.
salmon is a fatty fish; it’s already “full of oil.”
Chefguy, I often love your cooking advice. However, for those either not living in the Pacific Northwest or independently rich, farmed salmon is the affordable salmon we will see most often. Personally, I’ll often spurge on sockeye once or thrice when it’s in season, as that is when the prices are lowest. I see king so rarely as to be nearly non-existent outside of high-end restaurants, and I can’t remember the last time I saw pink or chum. Not enough market for those to warrant shipping to the east coast, I guess. Sockeye definitely tastes better than farmed, and doesn’t need a strong sauce or marinade to taste good (maybe just some lemony browned butter spooned over the top). Farmed salmon is fattier, and lends itself nicely to sauces, especially soy-based sauces. My advice to salmon buyers is that if you can’t go out to a local river and scoop them up with the local bears, don’t shy away from farmed, but take advantage of sockeye when it is in season.
Sidenote: I’ve seen farmed salmon (presumably) mislabeled Atlantic salmon - wild Atlantic salmon is endangered and probably shouldn’t be showing up at one’s fishmonger.
ETA: To jz78817’s post, salmon are naturally high in Omega-3 fatty acids, currently believed to be healthful fats. Farmed salmon has a higher fat content than wild salmon, due to not having to swim and compete for food.
All of the Atlantic salmon that you buy in the market is farm raised. Atlantic salmon is preferred for farming because they are docile, inactive fish that stack up in the net pens like lazy logs just waiting to be fed.
The coloring is from artificial additives to the feed they are fed. Either astaxanthin or canthaxanthin from farmed algae.
Atlantic salmon is just about as fake a ‘natural’ food as you can buy.
One of my standard go-to recipes - crazy easy and I’ve never had anything other than raves.
-Crank up gas grill (mine has 2 side by side burners) full throttle.
-Fold a piece of aluminum foil to slightly larger than the size of the pieces.
-Rinse pieces and place skin down on foil with no oil/etc. If no skin, spray foil w/ Pam.
-If you have a lemon or lime, squeeze some juice over them.
-Chop some fresh parsley and sprinkle on pieces (or use dried).
-Sprinkle light coating of bread crumbs.
-Completely coat w/ shredded parmesan cheese (the stuff in the can)
-Slide foil onto tray or plate to take outside.
-Turn the gas on one side down to medium. Temp will stay up over 500.
-Slide the foil onto the grill, close the lid, and go inside for around 25 minutes. If you rush and do it in 20, that might cut it a bit short. Don’t get to it for 30, and it will be a little crispy - but still great.
-When using a spatula to remove the pieces, the skin stays stuck to the foil.
-If you want fancy, garnish w/ parsley sprigs and the extra lemon slices.
Goes REALLY well w/ steamed asparagus.
Give it a try!
I wouldn’t go so far as calling them a fake natural food. Any commercially farmed meat source can be considered a fake natural food by that definition.
Wild Atlantic salmon are (were? - I guess not, as they are not extinct yet) a migratory fish, though I’m certain that the current farmed salmon populations have had the migratory instinct bred out of them and they are indeed docile and inactive (thus the higher fat content).
Grill it so the skin gets crispy. Top with pesto. Yum.
Dip it in milk and coat it with a mix of uncooked oatmeal and seasoning of choice. Pan-sear.
No one has mentioned Blackened Salmon yet…understandable since it’s a pain to prepare. But if you have access to a cast iron skillet and a extremely well ventilated kitchen it’s well worth the effort.
The Cajun salmon I mentioned upthread is pretty much blackened salmon. 