Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Recipe: Baked Cajun Salmon

I'm not a big fan of fish & neither is Pat. Salmon is the only kind we'll get on a regular basis. Our families never served salmon (mostly because they can catch fresh fish instead) so when I bought some fillets for the first time, I turned to a friend on Etsy (debralinker) for a basic how-to. I'm only calling this "Cajun" because I make up a cayenne & black pepper spice mix. So really it should be "Amanda's Spicy Salmon" ... but that just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Baked Cajun Salmon

Ingredients:

salmon fillets, with the skin
Cajun spice mix (or your favourite spice mix), 1 - 2 tbsp per fillet
soy sauce
1 tbsp oil

Methods:

1. First find some fresh salmon fillets. Fillets are cut along the skin whereas steaks are cut through the fish (so that the skin is all around the edges, with a horseshoe shape). We want fillets so that when we bake it, we can put the skin down to prevent the meat from sticking. Give them a rinse & place them in a dish large enough to hold all your fillets (not piled up on top of each other).

2. If you don't have a spice mix, make one. I use a mix of cayenne, black & chili peppers, cumin, coriander, garlic salt & whatever else strikes my fancy (this time I grabbed hot red pepper & jalapeno flakes, thyme & seasoned salt). Make about 1-2 tbsp per fillet. I just throw in a bit of everything until I have about enough.

3. Rub the spice mix into each fillet. Just the fleshy part.

4. Turn the fillets flesh-side down.Add soy sauce until you have about 1/4" - 1/2" covering the bottom of the dish. Make sure to dump the soy sauce over the fish & that there's enough to soak the fillets. Allow them to sit for 10-15 minutes, while you start to prepare the rest of your meal. This will help remove the fishy taste from the salmon & keep them moist while baking. You can also include a few tbsp of lemon juice if you like.

5. Preheat oven to 350F.

6. Heat a tbsp of oil (any oil will do - I used sunflower this time) in a frying pan on medium-hot. Let the pan get hot before putting in the fillets flesh-side down (skin-side up). Fry them for about 2 minutes - just to give them a bit of colour & crispness. Don't cook them all the way through. You can see that the skinnier edge of this fillet ended up pretty much done - that's ok, but if your fillets aren't very thick, reduce the frying time to 1 minute.

7. Transfer the fillets to a foil-lined cookie sheet. Place them skin-side down. You can drizzle them with flavoured oil or a bit of lemon juice if you like. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillets. You want to almost cook them through - they'll finish cooking for a few minutes after you take them out. Don't overcook, the fillets will be dry & unappetizing. If the meat breaks apart easily with a fork, flaking apart, then it's cooked.
Enjoy!

Our fillets were quite big & we weren't able to finish them. Being a little pricey, I couldn't throw them out - so I made salmon salad sandwiches today. Not really my favourite - but not too bad with a little diced leek.

3 comments:

Kara Lennox said...

Oh, yummy! We love our salmon cooked on the George Foreman grill. I use olive oil, lemon juice and various spices.

My mouth is watering!

Question, though--how do you get the skins off after the fish is done? It kind of grosses me out! I buy skinless fillets but they are more expensive.

Amanda said...

the skin grosses me out too. especially since i don't really like fish. :D

usually, the skin sticks to the foil, so when I pick up the cooked fillet, I only grab the meat (using an egg flipper). doesn't usually end up looking very pretty, but it tastes pretty good!

if it doesn't stick, i just place the fillet skin-down on the plate - the meat flakes off really easy. sometimes there's a bit of gray stuff (connective tissue in scientific terms) between the flesh & skin - this scraps off really easily too.

lisaroy said...

This sounds so great! I love salmon and have a great recipe using hoisin sauce which gives it a bit of sweetness. I'll have to give this one a try. : )