Cooking with Blobby

Lately, I think I've been saving Cooking segments when I don't have another blog topic. And I just don't want to talk about ICE or Greenland.  So you get salmon. 

We do salmon once a week and 93% I always do it the same. It's good, but I don't want to get boring either. So I happened upon an old episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made a glazed version. 

It was Elle's dish, and I was said to hear she passed away last week from ovarian cancer. I liked her over the years. 

I thought to myself - what the heck. Let's do it. 

Ingredients 

Brine

2-4 Salmon fillets 

2 quarts of water

1/4 cup of salt  

1/4 cup of sugar 

Glaze

4 T of soy sauce

1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

3 T of water

2 T of sugar

1 1/2 t of corn starch 

a few springs of thyme

chopped parsley for garnish. 

Cook top

1T of vegetable oil

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 300°F  

For the brine, add the sugar and salt to the cool water. Stir so they dissolve. Place salmon in the water (submerged) for 15-20 minutes. 

While the fish soaks, make the glaze. This would be the lemon juice, water, soy and corn starch. Wisk till it is all combined, leaving no clumps of corn starch. Put it over a medium high heat and add the thyme (I didn't have any).  I guess I "ran out of thyme"!    Oh, I kill me. 

Also did you know that corn starch will not activate and start to thicken unless you bring the mixture to a boil?  I just found that out a few weeks back. But bring to a boil until it is thickened (about 1-2 minutes) and take off the heat. Discard the thyme at this point. 

Reserve two tablespoons of the glaze. 

Take fish out of brine and pat it dry. With a tablespoon of oil, heat the pan on medium high and place the fish skin side up.  Leave in place for three minutes. 

Flip the fish (mine broke apart a bit) and brush the filets with reserved glaze. 

Place oven safe pan in the oven (on an upper middle rack) until fish internal temp reaches 125°F *.  I think that took 8-10 minutes. 

Once out of the oven, use the remaining glaze to brush on the salmon. Sprinkle with parsley (I didn't have that either - and no bad pun with which to go along. 

*125°F is ATK's preferred temp on many (all?) of their salmon recipes. Personally, I think it's too low. I like it closer to 140°F.    That said, I took it out at 133°F.  It was cooked fine, but it wasn't 'hot'. It wasn't cold either, but I like the temp to be hotter when I eat. 

Maybe it was the cut. Maybe it was the brine, but the fish was super delicate, hence it breaking so easily on flipping. But it was flakey and tender. The glaze was good. The lemon didn't overpower the soy or vice versa. 

I'd probably do this again. I might try it in the airfryer applying the glaze halfway through so it doesn't burn.