Yummy Lummy’s sous vide salmon and dill cream
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I’ve been wanting to sous vide salmon ever since I got my hands on my Anova Culinary precision cooker. I love salmon and just the thought has me drooling.
Check out the UPDATE at the end of this post.
What I’ve learnt though in reading a few recipes about sous vide salmon is that it’s not as simple as just bunging a salmon fillet in a bag, vacuum sealing it and then plonking it into a warm bath. If I do just that, the salmon will emerge with an unsightly white membrane over the flesh. While the membrane isn’t dangerous or have a bad taste, it doesn’t look that appealing.
The answer is brining. Brining is basically preserving or seasoning food with salt water. So to brine my salmon I just immersed my salmon fillet in salt water and left it in the refrigerator for half an hour before sealing it and giving it a warm bath.
I bought all the ingredients for this meal from Coles this morning.
Recipe
Sous vide salmon is next level. The flesh flakes so easily and sous vide cooks the fish evenly and perfectly. Brining and vacuum sealing with some olive oil and dill avoids the unsightly white membrane and enhances the flavour.
- skin-on salmon fillet
- Iodised salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ice water
- olive oil
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup loosely packed chopped fresh dill and chives
- Zest and juice of 1 lime
- Fennel thinly sliced
- red onion thinly sliced
- red wine vinegar
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For the brine, whisk 1/4 cup iodised salt into the ice water until dissolved. Add the salmon and refrigerate for one hour.
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Remove the salmon fillets from the brine and rinse with cold water. Pat dry with paper towel and rub it with olive oil. Vacuum seal in preparation for cooking.
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Set the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker to 52 °C/125 °F
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Place in the preheated water bath and cook for 45 minutes.
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Make the dill and lime cream in a bowl by stirring together sour cream with dill, lime zest, and lime juice. Season to taste with iodised salt and pepper.
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Prepare the fennel salad with the sliced fennel, red onion, capers, and red wine vinegar with a little olive oil.
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When the salmon has finished cooking remove the salmon from the vacuum bag and pat dry with paper towel.
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Sear the skin with a cook’s blow torch or use a hot pan with some high vapour point cooking oil.
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Serve on a plate.
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Shoot a few photographs.
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Eat the meal.
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Wash the dishes.
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post.
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Hope your friends share the blog post on social media.
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner.
The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste.
I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one and then scroll through them at your leisure.
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Questions and answers
How did it taste?
OMG! This salmon was next level. This was even better than salmon poached in oil. You have to try it.
Does the white membrane really matter?
Probably not, I’m guessing when I sear the salmon it burns away.
Will you be doing this every Monday?
That’s the plan.
Sponsorship comment
I mention brand names so you know what I’m using. I’m not sponsored by anyone or any company.
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Slang
Bung is a slang term. Bunging a piece of salmon in a bag means placing a piece of salmon in a bag.
Plonk is a slang term. Plonking the bag into the water bath means to place the bag into the water bath.
Update
On Tuesday night the 13 March 2018, I cooked the salmon again. This time I had found some finger limes to enhance the flavour of the sour cream and the nutty crunchy fennel salad.
I think this is the best meal I’ve ever cooked.
Check out these photographs.
looks fabulous Gary, and thanks for the brining tip! I haven’t got a sou vide cooker, but have actually cooked salmon in the sink in hot water (thermostat set at 50C), just topping it up every five min or so, it worked surprisingly well!
Sounds great Beck. Like you say, you don’t need a fancy cooker so long as you have the patience to keep the temperature relatively constant.
As I type this I have chicken in the water bath for dinner tonight.
The best meal you have ever cooked…that says it all. Thanks for the tip about brining as we haven’t cooked fish sous vide as yet. I’ll definitely be giving this a try. I’ve pinned it. Thanks!
Thanks Karen. I hope you let me know how it goes when you try it.
I need to step up a notch higher and learn how use a sous vide and i realize I also need a vacuum sealer. I love brined meat of any sort. It really improves the flavour. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Liz. You don’t need a vacuum sealer. You can use the displacement method. Place the meat into a ziplock bag and gently immerse into the water bath opening pointing up. As the water compresses the bag around the meat it expels the air. Just before the bag submerges, close the ziplock and Bob’s your uncle. It’s a cheaper way of doing it. I went with the vacuum sealer because I already owned one.
It’s great to see you really embracing the sous vide method. Looks fabulous (and yummy).
Thanks Serina, I love this way of cooking.
Looks great Gaz! I’ve never tried cooking this way before, I will need to give it a go. Thanks for sharing! Steph
I’m pretty sure Scruff will support you on that 😂
I look forward to seeing how you create amazing dishes.
Can you souls vide in a slow cooker? Great tip about the Aussie Slang!
I think you can Serena if you know the temperature. It’s really being able to adjust the temperature that provides the usefulness for different types of food. Chicken would need to have a temperature of around 74 °C, steak only needs 53 °C. If you know the temperature of your slow cooker you could choose a protein to match.
I have to try salmon – I think it’s definitely going to be on the menu sometime this week.
It’s only a one hour cook so adding the brining step just means it’s similar to a two-hour steak.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate! It seems like you have been going nuts with your sous vide lately judging by your recent posts. You have somewhat persuaded me to get one now since I need to know what all the fuss is about!!! Will try out a few of these recipes as soon as I can get one without the wife noticing. By the way the pictures are looking shmick!
If you have a secret husband space you should be able to hide the precision cooker and water bath bucket and even cook in a sequestered space.
Check out the YouTube channel Sous Vide Everything. They do many cooks in their office.
You’ll love sous vide. Steaks are amazing.
I had one… She said it now belongs to the baby. In that moment, I knew I had lost my husband space and the control over my own life.
😂 A bloke needs a shed for bloke stuff
Lol at the bro bonding and whatever shmick means I agree. Great pics.
😂 It’s great to have bonding with men and women here. You’re very kind about my photographs 😃👍
😀
Brining! It looks so easy to do. Well done on an out-of-the-world tasting cook-at-home salmon and dill sauce 😀 Gaz, what I like about your cooking is that you pretty much get most of your ingredients from Coles. Nothing fancy like something from a fancy butcher or specialty shop but make do with a bagful of groceries down the road from the regular shop. Make do with what you got and make it good 🙂
Thanks, Mabel. Coles is convenient and mostly cheaper than going to a market or butcher. Mostly the quality of the meal depends on how I cook the food, so I’m pretty happy 😃
This was so delicious to read.
I was curious. When you sear the fish, how difficult is it to get all of it to come out of the pan?
Also, I have noticed that ‘white’ layer lots of times in fish cooking. I just thought it was a fish thing!
Thanks, Kris, I use a non-stick frying pan and usually use some butter with a little oil. I pat the fish dry to reduce the splatter and with a decent spatula, I don’t have any problems with the fish sticking and not transferring in one piece.
I think the white stuff is a fish thing, the brining certainly helped.
Very helpful, thank you! 💜
Such a great tip to brine it. I can imagine how disappointing it would be if you opened it up and saw that it had the white coating.
Thanks, Lorraine. I was pretty thrilled with the result. The taste and texture were great.
Hadn’t thought of brining the salmon prior to popping it in the sous vide. Must ry that
Most recipes I’ve come across have mentioned the importance of brining.