Uber Delicious Sous Vide Citrus Soy Salmon

Looking back at our blog posts lately, we do seem to be putting up more and more cooking and baking recipes, and not as many restaurant reviews. Perhaps it's because good restaurants worth reviewing aren't usually cheap, and we've discovered that with a little trial, error and effort, you can often get much better value by cooking at home!

Today we're going to bust out the sous vide circulator yet again - but this time we're going to water bathe some fish. A stack of salmon fillets, to be exact. As you can see we've cut the skin off the fillets - this is because with sous vide the skin stays limp and soft, and to be honest not very appetizing. So we just skin the fillets with a sharp knife, and fry them up separately in a pan (don't really need extra oil cos the skin is full of natural fish oil) for a crispy snack.


The first step is to brine the fish. Brining means soaking in a salt solution - what this does to salmon is to inhibit the excretion of albumen (pinkish strands of protein) during the cooking process so you get a more visually appealing fillet. Oh, and it adds moisture, too. You want to mix water, ice and salt in about a 4:2:1 ratio (example, 400ml of water, 200ml of ice and 100ml of salt), soak the fish and leave it in the fridge for about half an hour before cooking. Make sure the water is as cold as possible! Brining in water at higher temperatures could cause food safety issues.


Once that's done, mix up about 1 tablespoons each of minced garlic and ginger, 1 tablespoon of any kind of citrus (orange juice, lime juice, lemon juice) and 1 teaspoon of soy sauce for each fillet. Mix it, dish it into your vacuum pack or ziplock bags, and we're ready to bathe!


Surprisingly, salmon doesn't take all that long to cook. 25 minutes is sufficient at anywhere from 48°C (rare) to 52°C (medium rare) to 60°C (medium), depending on how you like your fish. Try not to cook it past more than 40 minutes as although it won't technically overcook, it loses some of its texture and may get a little mushy.


Once done, it's ready to serve! As in most sous vide applications, the low cooking temperature means that the salmon tends to look a little pale. You can serve it as is, or put it under the broiler or blowtorch really quickly just to add a little colour. Serve with whatever takes your fancy - here we've paired the fillet with a side of spaghetti aglio olio and some steamed broccoli.


Looks amazing, tastes even better! The sous vide process ensures evenly cooked juicy fish throughout with melt-in-your mouth consistency. It's an easy dish to whip up, requires hardly any skill, and you can just as easily expand it to a dozen people at a dinner party. Give it a try! I don't think you will be disappointed.

Note: We have an additional SideKIC Kitchen Immersion Circulator available for sale. If you're interested do drop an email at shuigao(at)gmail(dot)com. Singapore, JB and KL only.

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