Oil Poached Salmon with Tomato Salsa and Dill Cream

 

This dish is one of my most recent success challenges that I have done, as oil poached was a pretty new concept of cooking for me and I was surprise it turn out so well for the first timer. It is a dish request by my mum who went on cruise early this year, she told me about the amazing salmon she had on the cruise was so delicious. For those who had tried to pan-fried or bake a salmon fillet before, you know it always turn out to be hard and dried outside and still not cooked inside.

However oil poached make the salmon fillet cook evenly and nicely without destroying the texture. It taste soft like tofu (according to my mum and dad who said that like 10 times when they ate the dish) and it feel like melted in your mouth (I said this J). The science behind is that the texture of salmon change at 46 degree but you cannot cook it over 50 degree, the protein of the fish (the white stuff, don’t worry it just protein) will start to appear and make the fillet get harden.

This is not a hard dish as long, as you are comfortable to use a lot of oil but don’t let it turn you off. Since the olive oil won't get into the salmon (it has something to do with the density of oil and fish) and also it healthy oil. Controlling the temperature is probably one of the biggest challenge of the dish, I’m glad that I got those heavy cast iron Le Creuset pot which did help a lot because it is good at storing heat and make it easier to control the temperature.

Hope you enjoy the recipe, it a pretty fun and interesting dish to make. Well I guess I found another dish to surprise people with this amazing tofu like salmon fillet and also with my recent favorite herbs – Dill.

Ingredient

Oil Poached

3 Slice 5cm wide Boneless Salmon Fillet, Room Temperature

Pinch of Salt for marinated

3 whole Garlic, peeled

1 teaspoon dried or fresh Thyme

1 teaspoon dried or fresh Rosemary

10 Cardamom Pods

10 whole black peppers

1 Bay Leaf

1-lemon zests

800ml Olive Oil 

Tomato Salsa

1 punnet of cherry tomato

5-6 Basil leave, chopped

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon Lemon juice

1 teaspoon of sugar

Salt and Pepper

Dill Cream

100ml thicken cream

1 Fresh Dill

1 teaspoon lemon juice

 

1) Wash and dice the cherry tomato. Mix with olive oil, basil, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper. Set aside for later.

 

2) Cut the salmon into same size and marinate with salt for 30 minutes.

3) Pat dries the salmon with kitchen towel.

4) Heat up the pot with about 1 teaspoon of oil and fry the garlic slightly.

5) Add the rest of the herbs (thyme, rosemary, cardamom pods, peppers and bay leave) and fry for about 1 minute in low heat.

6) Add about 800ml olive oil into the pot (should be about 1 inch height of the pot), use a thermometer and heat it up to 50 degree. Add the lemon zest in.

 

7) Place the salmon into the pot and make sure the oil just enough to cover the salmon. (If not enough add a little bit more oil in it.)

8) Oil Poach for 30 minutes and make sure the temperature is between 46-50 degree. (If temperature down below 46 Degree, heat up the pot to bring the temperature up.)

9) Carefully take out the fish and let excess oil drip.

10) Whipped the cream and then mix with dill leaves and lemon juice.

11) Assembly the dish with Tomato Salsa, Salmon, Dill cream and balsamic glaze.

 

Bon Appetite.