Singapore and Salmon

Some of my most favorite food blogs these days are coming out of Singapore. And why wouldn’t they be? It is a city famous for a smattering of cultures and a kaleidoscope of cuisines, where street food rivals white tablecloths establishments, and chili crab reigns supreme. If you are a foodie, make it a point to get to the city-state at some point. Preferably soon.

A few daily reads include chubby hubby, kuidaore, and kitchen crazy daffy. Recently daffy posted a recipe for braised pork belly, and it spoke to me.

Having recently started eating meat again after a 10-plus year absence, I am still a little skittish on the texture issue. Uniform, people, uniform. No surprises, please. Gnawing away on pork belly sounded as appetizing, as, wall, gnawing away on a giant piece of fat. In our mini fridge (Yes. Our fridge is a mini fridge. Don’t judge) sat a beautifully marbled piece of salmon and soon the brain waves started buzzing. “Pork belly is fat, salmon has fat. It can work!”

mini fridge 1 mini fridge 2

After a battery of ingredients began to boil, a beguiling aroma wafted through the apartment. A long absence had transpired since I last combined cloves, star anise, and ginger in a sugar solution.

I quickly seared the salmon, achieving the desired crispy browning, and after having strained the liquid, braised the salmon for a brief time. Braising is traditionally used for tough meats that desire a certain state of tenderness. Fish is not something one would traditionally braise. But poach? Why not.

What resulted was a salty/sweet syrup in which rested a tender buttery piece of fish. Lunchtime was never so divine.

braised salmon

Daffy’s recipe called for a mixture of light and dark soy sauce, and if you cook in Korea, please let me know if we have light soy sauce. Being a resident of a metric speaking country her recipe also featured the dreaded liter and milliliters, causing me to guesstimate. I found the sauce a tad on the salty side. Figuring I used too much soy sauce, I was surprise to find an empty fish sauce bottle in the recycling bin the next morning. Whoops.

Oolong Tea Steeped Salmon
Adapted from Daffy’s posting of
Anderson Ho’s Oolong Tea Steeped Pork Belly from the book
Menu DeGustation.

Serves 4. Total time (cook and prep) about 45 minutes.

*note: You can find spices like cinnamon sticks, cloves, and star anise at the Discount International Food market next to what the book in Itaewon. They also carry fried shallots and fresh cilantro.

A good, fat pinch of Oolong tealeaves
15ml (or 1 Tablespoon) dark soy sauce (this is where I accidentally used fish sauce)
100ml (or 6 and a half Tablespoons) light soy sauce
3 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
3 star anise
1.5 liters (about 6 cups) chicken stock
1-inch knob of peeled ginger
1/4 cup rice wine (I used mirin, a Japanese rice wine)
1-2 Tablespoons brown sugar to taste
300g Salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper

1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

2-3 Tablespoons fried shallots
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro/coriander chopped

2 cups of short grain sticky rice cooked

1. In a large saucepan combine Oolong tealeaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, chicken stock, soy sauces, ginger and rice wine and simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Sear the salmon on both sides in a medium skillet over high heat. What you want is a crispy brown crust to form on the edges and the middle.

3. Using a fine meshed strainer, strain the poaching liquid into a measuring cup or container. Pout the liquid in the pan with the salmon until the liquid comes a little more than half way up the fish. Simmer in the braising liquid for 5 minutes or until tender. Timing is everything for this recipe. Watch how long you sear the fish for. You may end up cooking it through if you leave it in the pan too long. I like my salmon a little pink in the center, and found around five minutes to be fine.

4. One the fish is ready, remove the salmon and slice into individual servings.

5. Bring braising liquid to a boil and add cornstarch solution. Give it a couple of minutes to thicken. You want the sauce to coat the back of a spoon.

6. Serve salmon over rice with sauce and garnish with crispy shallots and cilantro/coriander.

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3 thoughts on “Singapore and Salmon

  1. I can definitely understand your hesitation on the pork belly. I use it in my 김치찌개 because my husband likes the flavor it gives the soup, but I eat around it because it’s so fatty. As for the soy sauce, I haven’t really figured all the kinds out but there is a special kind of soy sauce for soup appropriately called
    국강장 and although I’m not 100% sure, I think it might be lighter (and less salty) than the regular soy sauce.

  2. Hi Mary,

    I’m really flattered and really glad that you tried the recipe. When I use guestimation to make the braising liquid, I always do the final tasting and add a little sugar. It usually ends up not salty enough though, and that’s when I reduce it to a thicker sauce to drizzle over the meat/salmon.

    Love,
    Daffy