Korean Roast Salmon

[js]
I had bookmarked a page describing a recipe for Korean roasted fish and had wanted to try making it for the longest time.

The recipe calls for a small-ish white-fleshed fish, something like a bass, but everytime I try to make it, the pickings at my usual Asian grocery seemed pretty thin for a white-fleshed fish. I did not want to do this recipe with tilapia, which had going for it its size, which seemed to me the proper size for this recipe.



[js]
One day, I saw a whole sockeye salmon shopping at Costco and decided to get it. I have a weakness for sockeye salmon: it is my favourite type. Seeing it whole (albeit without the head, unfortunately) always gets my heart a-pitter-patter.

Reading over the recipe again, I felt that the boldness of the sauce would go extremely well with the boldness of the sockeye salmon.



[js]
I started by chopping up green onions and mincing garlic and ginger. I added double the garlic in the recipe as I happen to love garlic.

We had some Korean red pepper paste (gochujang) in the fridge and I used that instead of the sambal oelek in the recipe. To compensate, I added a couple teaspoons of white vinegar as the Korean red pepper paste has a thicker, more viscous, deeper flavour than sambal oelek.

Everything else goes into the bowl to be mixed together: Korean coarse red pepper flakes, soy sauce, brown sugar, lemon juice and sesame oil.

One final taste of the sauce to check -- taste! as this is going to be the flavour of the sauce when cooked -- and I started slathering on the sauce on the fish.


pre-oven & post-oven

[js]
I put the fish on a rack as I didn't want it to swim in the sauce. I roasted the fish in an oven for about 40 minutes until slightly underdone as it had about 5-8 minutes to go under the broiler.



We served this with rice, green lettuce leaves, and kimchi.


[js]
This was delicious!

I loved the sweet, mildly spicy, savoury combo of the sauce and it was indeed an exceptional pairing with the flavour of the sockeye salmon. I would have preferred the sauce to be even spicier, and next time I make it, I would probably add a couple of jalapeño peppers for that sprightly spicy greenness.

A perfect bite would have the sauce, with some charring from the broiler, the skin, preferably crispy, and the juicy, moist flesh of the fish.



eatingclub vancouver Korean
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Korean Pork Bulgogi (with Muu Namul, Kong Namul)
Korean Roast Salmon
Korean Fried Chicken
Korean Sweet Potatoes with Yangnyeom Sauce
Japchae / Jap Chae (Korean Glass Noodles with Vegetables)

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Recipe
Korean Roast Sockeye Salmon
adapted from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101987037

4 tbsp Korean coarse red pepper flakses
2 tbsp Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
4 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
4 tsp white vinegar
6 stalks green onions, chopped
2 tbsp sesame oil
6 to 8 lbs whole salmon
(or, use fillets or steaks)

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix together.

Pat the fish dry. If desired, cut 3 slits into the flesh of the fish across the length of the fish. Place the fish on a rack and slather on the sauce on both sides of the fish. Reserve some for glazing at the end.

Roast in the oven for 35 minutes at 375 degrees until slightly underdone. Glaze the fish with the half of the remaining sauce. Turn on broiler and broil for 5 to 8 minutes until slightly charred on the edges. Flip the fish over and glaze with the remainder of the sauce. Broil for 5 to 8 minutes on this side.

Serve with rice, lettuce, and kimchi.

Steamed Fish and Tofu with Chinese Black Beans

TS:
We weren't even going to post about this dish at all, as it was something JS threw together very quickly to feed the household. However, we made this twice in two weeks, so perhaps there's something to this dish after all.

It seems that we are skewing very home-style for our recent Weekend Wokking entries.

JS:
There's a pattern going on with our household meals, a pattern I find a bit weird myself. If a dish goes over well in our household, I tend to repeat it within the next two weeks. Maybe I'm subconsciously checking if the first time was a fluke or not? After repeating the dish, it then falls into the black hole of my memory, who knows when to be resurrected again.

I wanted to get some fish onto our table last week, seeing we had gone fish-less at home for a couple of weeks now. The lucky fish of the week is sole, conveniently already in fillets. I didn't want to muck around with flour and butter and do some sort of batch-cookery, so sole meunière was out of the question.



JS:
Besides, given my usual hurry and impatience to get dinner done, a delicate fish like sole will usually be manhandled to pieces.

So, I thought, why not just steam the fillets the Chinese way, with some ginger, scallions, Shaoxing wine, and black beans? It's easy and the sole fillets gets to the table unscathed.

Black Beans


TS:
These are actually soy beans that have been dried/fermented/salted. These are the beans that are used to make black bean sauce (usually available prepared in jars), like in Stir-fried Pork with Black Bean Sauce, or in Clams in Black Bean Sauce.

About.com: Chinese Food - Fermented Black Beans

Tofu, Two Kinds

sole with soft tofu

TS:
The first time JS made the dish, we had soft tofu on hand. We layered the soft tofu and the sole fillets. When the dish finished cooking, the tofu and fish have become one: each piece consisted layers of fish and tofu.


sole with firm Northern-style tofu

TS:
The second time, we used Northern-style tofu (as seen here). In this case, JS simply added the tofu cubes into the dish without the fancy layering.

For this dish, I'm thinking most any kind of tofu would work -- and there are a lot of different kinds available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu

JS:
I didn't even have to get the steamer out, as I just put the ingredients in a big enough platter, covered the whole thing with Saran-wrap, and microwaved until done.

Serve with white rice and some green vegetables and it's quite a healthy, hassle-free weeknight meal.



Recipe
Steamed Fish and Tofu with Chinese Black Beans

8 sole fillets
1 2" piece of ginger, cut into slivers
2 stalks green onions, cut into slivers
cilantro (optional)
1 tbsp black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 bird's eye chili
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 blocks tofu, in thick slices or in big cubes

Quantities serve as a guide. Feel free to adjust the amount of ingredients according to your taste.

Place all ingredients onto a platter. Steam until fish is done. Alternatively, cover with plastic wrap and microwave until fish is cooked through.

Serve with white rice and green vegetables.