Thai Scented Salmon
I love using fish sauce in many of my recipes, it gives what experts say an umami experience in your mouth.
This fifth basic taste—alongside sweet, sour, salty, and bitter—was named umami, meaning “deliciousness” in Japanese. What is the umami experience, well it’s that deep, dark, meaty intensity that distinguishes seared beef, soy sauce, ripe tomato, Parmesan cheese, anchovies, and mushrooms, among other things. It hits the back of your throat and leaves you craving more.
Fish sauce is a liquid condiment made from fish or krill that have been coated in salt and fermented for up to two years. It is used as a staple seasoning in East Asian cuisine and Southeast Asian cuisine, particularly Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The term Umami, is confirmed by science. The word and its concept were coined, in the early twentieth century, by a Japanese chemist named “Kikunae Ikeda”. Curious to know what was chemically responsibly for the distinct and dominant flavor of dashi, the stock that’s a staple of Japanese cooking, Ikeda examined closely the molecular composition of one of its main ingredients, a variety of seaweed. He determined that the culprit was a single substance, glutamic acid, and he named its taste umami, from the Japanese word for delicious, umai; umami translates roughly to “deliciousness.” This single substance “glutamic acid” bind to specific tongue receptors and makes the magic happen in your mouth. Any food in which glutamic acid occurs naturally or after cooking, aging, or fermentation is considered umami.
Following widespread recognition of its ability to impart a savory umami flavor to dishes, it has been embraced globally by chefs and home cooks a like. Give this umami dish a try tonight, it’s mild, and, after eating, it’s not heavy on your stomach, that’s what deliciousness is all about. It’s about feeling good after eating whole foods that taste amazing.
Thai Scented Salmon
Serves 4
Ingredients:
½ cup cilantro
½ cup mint leaves
1x 2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium Thai red chili, finely chopped or ¼ teaspoon chili flakes
1 lime, juice of
4 tablespoons nam pla (fish sauce)
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
4 x 6oz wild Alaskan salmon fillets
4 small bok choy, cut in half lengthways
How to make:
In a small food processor, blend together the cilantro, mint, ginger, garlic, chili, lime juice, fish sauce and hoisin sauce until smooth.
Place the salmon fillets in a zip lock bag and pour over the sauce, seal and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.
Turn on the steamer and place the bok choy on the bottom layer. Place the marinated salmon fillets in the top half of the steamer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the fish is just cooked and the bok choy is tender.
Remove the salmon and bok choy from the steamer and arrange on four warm plates, warm through the reserved marinate and spoon over the salmon and bok choy, serve immediately with a wedge of lime.