Complex Thai-Style Cured Salmon

Here’s a little adventure into the worlds of Thai flavours and video. I will be smoking some salmon over the coming couple of weeks and while I was thinking about doing something “different”, I thought doing something with a bit of Thai flavour might be fun. I took the trouble to shoot a bit of footage to show the process. I have been utilising video in my business over the past few months and thought that I might apply it here on the blog too.

For the record, shooting video is far more complex than shooting stills. There is a lot more to consider. With stills, I have the lighting down pat with a single flash, some reflectors and pieces of card and tinfoil. The video needs continuous lighting, and lots of it. Post production of video is far more involved than photography too. There are more moving parts and many more things to consider. I decided to not add a voice over, partly because I don’t think the world is ready my nasal Irish brogue and partly because it would add a completely different layer of timing, editing and complexity. Also, I enjoyed the challenge involved in producing a video that instructs without the need for voice. Let me know if it works, please.

For those of you not interested in watching the movie, here’s the ingredients list for my Thai Style Cured Salmon.

Ingredients

• One 600 gramme piece of fresh organic salmon
• 120 grams grated coconut cream
• 100 grams rock salt (untreated)
• 100 grams white sugar
• 2 stalks of lemongrass
• 12 slices of galangal
• 1 red chilli
• Juice of 2 and zest of 1 lime
• 1 handful of coriander (cilantro)

Mix the coconut, sugar and salt in a bowl. Chop up the lemongrass, galangal, chilli and coriander. Zest the lime. Squeeze the limes. Mix all these ingredients into a rough paste. Place the salmon on a large piece of cling film in a dish. Cover the flesh side of the fish with the mixture. Wrap it up tight in the cling film. Sit a smaller dish on top of the salmon and add some weights to it (a couple of tins of tomatoes will do). Place it in the refrigerator for 48 hours. Turn the fish every 12 hours.

Carve it thin or cut into chunks. The choice is yours.

Take the fish out of the refrigerator. Scrape off the mixture and rinse the fish under copious cold water. Pat it dry and carve it to serve with a mango salsa. Please don’t skip the salsa. It really brings this fish alive (not literally) and makes for a fantastic flavour combination.

The salsa is made with flesh of one mango diced, one small red chilli diced, juice of a lime and a few coriander leaves chopped. Delicious!

Footnote

The flavour profile fo the fish is altered quite a bit if you cut it into chunks rather than thin slices. Both are delicious. Both work wonderfully with the mango salsa. Give this a go.