Thai Green Curry Poached Salmon
I am a lover of all things curry, but especially Thai curries that involve coconut milk. We are trying to work some more salmon into our lives for health reasons, and this recipe is a definite winner! Mr. Wonderful told me I can stop putting chicken in our curries…NOW!
Watch how easy this is.
Start out by adding a couple tablespoons of olive oil to a large pot.
Next, chop up 3-4 shallots. If you don’t have shallots, it’s okay, just use white or red onions.
Add them right into the pot.
Don’t let them brown too much – you’re really just wanting to sweat these out and make theem soft and yummy. Can I just confess something to you? I walked away AND had the heat on too high. Within minutes, I had black crispy shallots and had to wash the pot and start again.
Food bloggers have disasters..honest we do.
Luckily I had a huge bag of shallots from my Asian market.
After these saute around on medium low heat, break out the good stuff.
This is green curry paste and you can find it at your Asian markets (For help finding your way thru an Asian market click here). Many regular stores are carrying curry pastes. If you can’t find green, try red. It’s actually my favorite. Make sure you see some of these ingredients on the label though. There are red Indian curries also. Look for lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal. The difference in red and green curry is pretty much based on the types of chili’s used to make the paste and I believe green is a little hotter.
If you see things like turmeric, coriander and cumin, you’ve probably found a bottle of Indian red curry. There is a totally different flavor makeup in that.
I add about 2 tablespoons of green curry to my recipe but you should start with one and see what you think about the heat.
Add in your curry paste with your shallots.
Stir this around for a bit and let it toast. Meanwhile, chop up some veggies. Tonight I used, red peppers..
I chopped 1/2 of a large red pepper into bite size pieces.
And I also chopped up about a cup of sugar snap peas.
And just look at these little babies I found at the Asian market…little tiny baby bok choy.
I just sliced them up thinly. If you can’t find baby bok choy, use regular or even green cabbage would work. Use about 2 cups.
Your curry should have toasted a bit by now which will warm it up and make it mixable. Dump in one can of coconut milk. I always use the light version. The heavy version has a lot of fat and I just don’t notice a big difference in flavor between the two.
Just pour it right into your pot.
Stir this up a bit. And then add in 2 tablespoons of fish sauce.
Fish sauce is the salt of the Asian world…a good Thai dish is part salty, part spicy, part sour and part sweet. It hits your taste buds, and confuses them to death in a beautiful way. You kind of figure out your own balance of these ingredients..just increase or reduce these ingredients the way you like them.
So for the sweet part, we’re going to add in 1/4 cup of brown sugar as well.
Mix all of this up.
Increase your heat to medium and bring this to a low simmer…then toss in your veggies.
Give em a stir and then nestle in 4 pieces of salmon.
Cover your pot and simmer this as low as possible without letting the simmering stop. On my stove, this is medium to medium-low, but you’ll have to find your perfect setting on your stove. This is called “poaching”.
Poach your salmon for about 7 minutes. This will be the perfect time to cook your veggies a bit, but still leave them a little crisp.
Your salmon will be moist and tender, and if you’re not a huge salmon fan like Mr. W, this is a great way to mask some of the fishiness from the salmon. The fishiness is tempered a little in this spicy and creamy sauce. Just before serving, take one lime and squeeze it into the pot. And that will be our sour part of the equation! The lime and the curry are like a flavor explosion on your tastebuds!
Serve this over rice. Use brown if you feel like being really healthy. And sprinkle it with some chopped cilantro.
This is good stuff people. If you haven’t had a Thai curry, you really should try this…it’s soooo good!
- 2 T. olive oil
- 4 shallots, diced (or red onion)
- 2 T. Thai Green or Red Curry Paste (like Mae Ploy)
- 1 can Lite Coconut Milk
- ¼ c. brown sugar
- 2 T. fish sauce
- ½ red pepper, chopped
- 1 c. chopped sugar snap peas
- 2 c. thinly sliced bok choy or cabbage
- 4 (2 oz) pieces of salmon
- 1 lime
- ½ c. chopped cilantro
- 3 c. cooked white or brown rice (cooked according to package directions)
- In large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Add shallots and stir and cook until transluscent, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add curry paste and stir.
- Add coconut milk, sugar and fish sauce.
- Stir to mix and bring to a low simmer.
- Add veggies. Mix.
- Nestle salmon pieces into liquid and cover pot.
- Simmer 7 minutes.
- Just before serving, squeeze in lime juice.
- Serve over rice and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
