Ina's-Eli's Asian Salmon

I had some great salmon fillets from Fresh & Easy and wanted a quick dish that didn't require grilling, for a change. I remembered a dish Ina Garten made with panko bread crumbs that had sounded great. Being lazy, I didn't bother to look up the recipe and pretty much winged it, using the idea as a framework, with the goal of asian-tasting salmon with a crunchy topping being my desired destination.

I had left-over chinese dumpling dipping sauce (the usual suspects: soy sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and garlic, rice wine vinegar, chinese wine, a little hoisin or oyster sauce, depending on what you have/like and a bit of nam pla) that seemed to me to make way more sense to use than to start from fresh; I was in a hurry, right?

I lined a small baking dish with foil, put the fish in skin side down, poured the sauce over (about 3/4 c), spread a liberal amount of panko on top, topped that with chopped fresh green onions, spooned a bit of the dipping sauce over each fillet, and then drizzled everything with sesame oil and a tad of canola oil (to keep the panko from being mushy). Then I popped it in the oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes.

Oh, my. It was so good. And the little bit of leftovers made a heavenly breakfast, too.

For those of you who really like a recipe to follow I've cut and pasted Ina's below. I was shocked that it received so many bad reviews in proportion to good reviews. Most of the issues seemed to deal with too much salt and mushy panko. I think reducing the seasoning, and the marinating time, and drizzling the panko with oils will cure most issues that were reported.

It really is an amazing and different way to prepare salmon, though, and I highly recommend you give it a go. I think it will work great with other seafood, too - I'm going to try large butterflied shrimp next time. I think you could also change the seasonings - like use garlic, white wine and butter, and so forth. I think the basic shining point of the technique is that you get gbd (golden brown and delicious) goodness, which is always tutti bene.


Eli's Asian Salmon
Copyright 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved
Show: Barefoot ContessaEpisode: Going, Going, Gone
RECIPE
COMMENTS & REVIEWS(175)
Cook Time
20 min
Level
Easy
Yield
5 servings
Close
Times:
Prep
10 min
Inactive Prep
15 min
Cook
20 min
Total:
45 min

Ingredients
2 1/4 pounds center-cut salmon fillet (1 1/2 inches thick)
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons chili paste
1/2 cup sliced scallions (2 scallions)
2 tablespoons minced garlic (8 large cloves)
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
Directions
Line an 8 by 12-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Place the salmon in the pan.
In a mixing cup, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, lemon juice, oyster sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, chili paste, scallions, garlic, and ginger. Pour 1/3 of soy sauce mixture over the salmon fillet. Sprinkle the panko evenly over the fillet. Pour the rest of the soy sauce mixture evenly over the panko. Be sure to soak the panko completely and if any runs off, spoon back onto the salmon. Set aside for 15 minutes, leaving all the sauce in the pan.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Roast the salmon for 18 to 20 minutes, or for about 12 minutes per inch at the thickest part of the salmon. The internal temperature will be 120 degrees F on a meat thermometer when it's done. Remove from the oven, wrap tightly with aluminum foil, and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Rated: 3 stars out of 5175 Reviews
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