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.
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.
Australia Day Poppy and Sesame seed crusted salmon and Moreton Bay bug salad
Friday, 26 January 2018 was Australia Day. A public holiday in Australia and a day of some controversy. Yummy Lummy isn’t keen on controversy, so let’s stick with food.
The Australian lamb industry over many years has endeavoured to socially engineer Australians into thinking the best meat element of a meal to serve on Australia is lamb. I love lamb, and I’ve certainly indulged in the heady heights of commercial supplication in years gone by. This year was different. Not because I was protesting the idea of lamb on Australia Day, no, it just didn’t happen. True story.
Where the bloody hell was I on Australia Day?
Yea, I know, when a sentence starts, “Where the bloody hell…?” You’re thinking Lara Bingle, and let’s face it, my face and body are just about as far removed from an image of Lara’s as you can imagine. I mean, who’d want to look like Lara, when you could look like me 😂🤣
For readers who aren’t Australian, this is what we call, “taking the piss”. You may find this post is a little more strine that normal. No apologies cobber, Straya day comes but once a year, which for every one else, means annually. 💚💛🇦🇺
Rather than baking in the hot dry heat of Canberra, I was lapping up the warmth and humidity of Brisbane. My vulgar ichthyoid skin was drinking in the sweet sultry nectar of balmy Brisbane. I was like a lizard sunning itself on a rock next to a hot misty billabong. I was happier than a pig in mud.
I was visiting my parents and children. In my other blog, viz., My Thoughts and Stuff, you may have read how I’ve had a sick relative who was diagnosed with bowel carcinoma and then had quite awful post-operative complications involving intensive care. I’m happy to report that my formerly sick relative is well on the road to recovery now.
So what did Yummy Lummy eat on Australia Day 2018?
I promise we’ll get to a recipe, but this post needs a little padding.
Breakfast
I enjoyed the breakfast of champions, or at least the breakfast of those wishing to shed some kilograms.
Scrambled eggs made with butter and seasoned with iodised salt and dried mixed herbs
Lunch
My cousin and her husband were also visiting Brisvegas and they joined me, my parents and my children for lunch at Kinn + Derm Chermside. I like this particular cousin. She’s a fairly direct person and says what she thinks. No mucking around with her.
There were seven of us so we looked through the menu and asked for enough dishes to feed us all. A regular theme when I’m out with family at restaurants, is just how well Lums can eat. This meal was no exception. We asked for chicken pad Thai, basil beef and chilli with an egg, massaman beef, red duck curry, crispy pork belly, green paw paw salad, soft shelled crab with sweet chilli jam and extra soft shelled crab in a curry sauce. There was also another chicken dish but I can’t remember what it was. See what happened there? Beef, pork, chicken, duck, and crab but no lamb. It wasn’t intentional. It just happened. As far as I’m concerned, eating Thai on a Australia Day is a great thing to do, especially for dinkum Australians like the Lum family.
My first of many plates, yea, it’s all brown but the plate contained a heap of different flavours. We were in the back in the dark, so the lighting isn’t great.
Fair shake of the sauce bottle, stop yer whingin’ about the poor photography…
Dinner
I rarely cook for anyone else and truth be told, I am very shy and nervous about cooking for others. I know it seems odd, but no one will ever get invited to the one bedroom flat I rent for a meal. It’s just too stressful. I’m also messy and I’m embarrassed by my mess.
Cooking for family though is different. I feel relaxed in the kitchen when I’m with family and it’s a good feeling when I have one of my children standing next to me and we’re chatting and doing knife work together.
For Australia Day dinner, I originally thought I’d do something simple like baked salmon and salad, but then on Friday morning, I noticed the fish shop at Westfield Chermside was open for business so I asked about their Moreton Bay bugs (Thenus orientalis). I bought four small bugs for $20. That meant I didn’t need to buy as much salmon.
My plan was to crust the salmon with poppy and sesame seeds to make it look like a Lamington which is an iconic Australian cake. I’d stir-fry a whole heap of kale slaw and flavour it with horseradish cream. I’d refrain from adding bird’s eye chillies because my mother isn’t too keen on very spicy food at the moment, so I got some hot chilli flakes so I could garnish individual dishes at the end.
Mum suggested for dessert we have some Cornettos. I chose the flavour. What could be more Australia Day than Golden Gaytime Gaynettos?
Australia Day Poppy and Sesame seed crusted salmon and Moreton Bay bug salad
Prep Time
10mins
Cook Time
15mins
Total Time
25mins
Australia Day Poppy and Sesame seed crusted (Lammy) salmon and Moreton Bay bug salad was a winning combination for a sultry evening in balmy Brisbane on Friday night.
Course:
Main Course
Cuisine:
Australian
Servings: 4
Calories: 500kcal
Author: Gary
Ingredients
4Cooked Moreton Bay bugsThenus orientalis aka slipper lobster
3Tasmanian Atlantic salmon fillets each cut in half
Poppy seeds
Sesame seeds
Dried hot chilli flakes
2packetsKale slaw with sesame and pumpkin seeds
1tablespoonHorseradish cream
1tablespoonSour creamto cut the bite of the horseradish cream
1avocado diced
1lime quartered
50gramsButter
1splash Olive oil
Instructions
Remove the shell from the tail of the Moreton Bay bugs, slice them sagittally and the make transverse cuts to give you large dices of tail muscle.
Put the Moreton Bay bug meat into a bowl with the quartered lime in the refrigerator.
Slice the salmon fillets in half so from the three original pieces you end up with six.
Place them in a plastic bag and add the splash of olive oil. Then gently massage the oil onto all the out surfaces of the salmon.
On a sheet of baking paper, pour half a cup of sesame seeds and half a cup of poppy seeds. Stick your finger into it and mix so you get a good mix of the two seed types on the paper.
Remove one piece of salmon and carefully coat the outer surface with the poppy and sesame seeds and then place the coated salmon onto a piece of baking paper which is on a baking tray. Repeat the process for all the pieces of salmon.
Bake the salmon at 250 °C for 15 minutes.
While the salmon is cooking, get a large frying pan hot and them melt the butter.
When the butter begins to foam and turn brown, add the kale slaw and with chop sticks stir-fry until the kale has wilted. Remove the frying pan from the heat and transfer the slaw into a large salad bowl and stir in the horseradish cream and sour cream.
After the salmon has baked, remove it from the oven and allow it to rest for 5 minutes.
As the salmon is resting, stir in the avocado through the stir-fried kale slaw. Add the juice from half a lime.
At this stage, you could also fold in the pieces of Moreton Bay bug to give your guests some nice flavour bombs in the salad. I elected to add my bug meat on top of the salad for the visual appeal.
Serve the salad onto a plate. Garnish it with dried hot chilli flakes if you know it’s safe for that person.
Place the bug meat on top of the salad.
Alongside the salad place a piece of poppy and sesame seed crusted salmon.
Shoot a photograph and then eat, savour and enjoy your 2018 Australia Day dinner.
Recipe Notes
I do not take the time or make the effort to work out the energy content of the food I cook. I default all my recipes to 500 Calories (that is, 500,000 calories). In my mind counting calories is not how I want to live.
Photographs
Moreton Bay bugs
Salmon
Dinner is served
Dessert is a Golden Gaytime Gaynetto
Questions and answers
It’s bloody Australia Day, where the bloody hell is the lamb?
Struth mate, just because some Aussie Rules buffoon of yesteryear gets on the bloody box and makes a few jokes at the expense of the less well off, that is, Australians not blessed to have been born in the greatest nation on earth, there’s no reason to get ya knickers in a knot.
I love lamb, I love mutton flaps, I like lambs fry and crumbed lamb’s brains in a delicate white sauce with onions, but just because it’s Australia Day doesn’t mean I have to bend to some commercial pressure to eat a baby sheep.
Will you ever cook for someone who isn’t in the Yummy Lummy family?
Nup, never. It’s not happening. I’m too shy to have people around. I get nervous just thinking about cooking for someone else. What if she doesn’t like what I cook? What if she spits it out? Too much pressure.
Sure I love to cook. Cooking is therapeutic for me. I prefer to enjoy my therapy alone and share it later online.
When will you have lamb?
Dunno mate. I might try those Vegemite lamb snags that Coles is spruiking. They look interesting and I mean mate, Vegemite is tops.
You look like a Chinaman, what’s with the Strine?
Bloody oath. I’m fifth generation. On my Mum’s side (Dad’s family is Chinese too but they come from Fiji), the family came out from China looking for gold in God’s own, that is, Queensland. They found a bit I reckon and then they owned and worked on sugar cane farms around Bundy (aka Bundaberg). After that, they moved to Sydney for some import/export work but when the Japs got into Sydney Harbour they moved to Texas (no not Texas in the US you drongo, the great Queensland town of Texas near the Cockroach, erm, NSW border). After that they owned and cooked in Chinese restaurants cooking chop suey for all the unsuspecting gwai lo truckies at the Rocklea truck stop. The Golden Pagoda was the name, but it got destroyed by the 1974 Brisbane floods.
Apology
Okay, I’ve had a bit of fun with this post. Australia Day is an important food holiday and being an Australian, I’ve taken a few language liberties. Yummy Lummy will be back to normal next post.
Anchor Note for young readers, I didn’t write a “steamy billabong” because I’m also pedantic, and steam, is an invisible gas. It’s the gaseous phase of water when water is boiled to 100 °C (that’s Celsius and not Centrigrade) at STP. That’s standard temperature and pressure and not sticky toilet paper.
Panko crusted anything is good. I’ve done it on salmon before but as a cheat using olive oil as an adherent. Tonight, I used the old fashioned plain flour and egg method to crumb (or bread as American cooks seem to say) the salmon.
Panko crusted anything is good. I’ve done it on salmon before but as a cheat using olive oil as an adherent. Tonight, I used the old fashioned plain flour and egg method to crumb the salmon.
Course:
Main Course
Cuisine:
Australian
Servings: 1
Calories: 300kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
1pieceSalmon(tail end)
½cupPlain flour
1pieceEgg
1splashFull cream milk
½cupPanko breadcrumbs
4tablespoonsOlive oil
Instructions
Add the flour to the plastic bag the salmon is wrapped in and coat the salmon in flour.
Beat the egg in the milk and bathe the floured salmon in the egg-milk mixture.
Coat the salmon in the Panko breadcrumbs and allow the salmon to cool in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.
Heat up a frying pan and add the olive oil.
Gently lay-in the salmon skin side down and shallow fry, agitating occasionally to ensure it doesn’t stick to the frying pan.
After a few minutes turn the salmon over and finish cooking. It will probably take five minutes in total.
Allow the salmon to rest for a minute or two.
Plate up with whatever vegetables you want.
Shoot a photograph and eat the salmon and enjoy the moist tender flaky flesh in your mouth along with the crispy crunch of the Panko crumbs.
Hope the photograph looks good and then blog about it and hope some more that people will share the recipe on social media.
Recipe Notes
This is a simple and easy way to make salmon taste better.
[social_warfare]
Can I crumb other things?
Yep, you can crumb any meat and even vegetables.
Could I deep fry rather than shallow fry the salmon?
Sure, I don’t think it would be as nice though nor as easy to control the cooking. But I’m all for deep frying anything.
Is there a vegetarian version?
Of salmon? No. There’s no vegetarian version of salmon. You could crumb a piece of tofu or a mushroom rissole if that is what you want.
What else did you eat today?
For breakfast, I had a jalapeño Spam and smoked cheddar sausage roll.
For lunch, I had leftover spicy asparagus soup.
Social media
Please follow me on my food-based social media on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. What I’d love you to do is share this post on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else you’d like, even Google+
I like the fact in Canberra we have taxpayer funded public art and street art all in the one place. I just wonder when what locals are calling the “Woden ghetto sans people” will undergo development.
Back to my usual routine of salmon on a Monday. In the new year, I bought myself a Tefalportable induction hob. It was fantastic. An induction hob is great for making crispy skin salmon.
Tuesday
It’s getting cool again in Canberra. I miss Summer. The Woden wind tunnel is very fresh in the morning as I go to get my mail.
I was involved in some group work and someone brought some TimTams. You’ve got to love coworkers who bring TimTams.
Lunch was a cordon bleu from Urban Bean. It was good. I like adding cheese and ham to most things 🤣
Dinner was again crispy skin salmon.
Wednesday
It’s hump day and I still wonder if this is the only “sign” of construction the Woden ghetto sans people will see in the foreseeable future.
Urban Bean did a special mushroom burger lunch. No bread, just these huge Portobello mushrooms instead of a bun. It was delicious, especially with the beetroot.
Dinner was Wednesday chicken, namely, broccoli and spicy cheesy chicken wings on oven fried bread.
Thursday
Payday, you’ve got to love payday. I love payday. I often buy the lunch special from Urban Bean on pay day. The special was Beef Wellington with truffle mash, broccolini and mushroom jus.
Dinner was a simple meat-free quinoa rice and vegetables because I’d eaten so much during the day.
I also decided it was time to change the profile photograph I was using on my non-food related social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I’m so grateful I can connect my camera with my iPhone. Yes, it’s been edited to smooth out my skin a little.
Friday
For a bit of a change, rather than going to the staff tuck shop, I went to the Zouki café with a colleague for lunch. I had a chicken schnitzel wrap. It was quite filling.
Friday saw round two of the NRL with the highlight being Friday night’s game between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys.
I decided to make a bowl of cheerios and cheesy potato gems with ETA barbeque sauce. As much as I enjoyed the meal, my team, the Brisbane Broncos lost in golden point extra time. It was just like a finals game. It was so exciting.
Final words
I ate well on the weekend too, but I’ve put enough photographs in this post. Have a good weekend. Catch you later.
Crispy skin salmon is a real pleasure in terms of mouthfeel
There’s nothing like crispy skin salmon, the crunch through the skin and then the feel as your teeth penetrate the soft flaky flesh of the salmon and the spread of flavour over your tongue.
Please do me a favour
I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the side bar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).
By subscribing you’ll receive a personalised e-mail from me and from time to time, apart from the blog post I’ll share something new, like my ideas for a cook book sometime this year.
I thought I’d make a video of how I make the skin on my salmon crispy without a lot of fat flare
What you need to do this quickly and easily
A small piece of salmon, either a tailpiece or middle piece
A plastic bag
Some flour
Any other flavourings that are dry or powdery like chilli flakes or dried mixed herbs
High burning temperature oil like avocado oil
A small nonstick frying pan
A source of heat that rapidly gets to a high temperature and over which you have reasonable control (I use a portable induction hob)
Here’s how to do it
Put the salmon into a plastic bag and then add some flour and other flavourings. Shake the bag carefully so the salmon is coated evenly and being careful not to let the bag break. You don’t want to have flour all over yourself and the kitchen floor.
Heat up the oil quickly and put the salmon in the frying pan skin side down.
Cook the salmon until the skin is brown and then turn it over and cook the other side.
When the salmon is cooked to your liking, take it off the heat and allow it to rest for a few minutes.
Serve with salad or whatever you like/
How does it taste?
Fantastic. I like baked salmon but crispy skin pan fried salmon is always my favourite.
If you live alone and just want something you can cook for yourself, here’s a good one.
Final thoughts
If you try this please let me know how you go.
Can you do me another favour please
I’m sort of transitioning my blogging to balance between food blogging and light hearted ‘medical’ podcasting. Please check out the podcast at drgarylum.com/blog
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