Category Archives: Fish

Salmon with pistachio crust on pearl barley salad

January 30, 2019 3:14 pm / Leave a Comment /

I love coming up with new flavour combinations, especially for healthy salads.  This dish was a winner for a recent special occasion.  It looks amazing but wasn’t difficult to cook at all in the combi although the salmon does need to be cooked separately.

Use your favourite combination of ingredients for the salad making sure that you have a variety of textures.  As the pearl barley takes the same cooking time in the steam oven as brown rice you can substitute this if you prefer and especially if you are gluten free.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

4 small fillets of salmon or ocean trout, skinned and pin boned
60g butter, softened
½ cup chopped pistachio nuts
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
Grated rind of 1 lemon
salt & pepper to taste

Salad:
1 cup pearl barley, washed and drained
1¼ cups vegetable stock
1 bunch asparagus, cut into thirds
3 small, fresh radish washed
¼ cup chopped, fresh parsley
¼ cup pomegranate seeds
Dressing:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon pomegranate molases
1 tsp honey or to taste
pinch sea salt

Method:

  1. Firstly, cook the pearl barley in the steam oven with the stock on 100°C for 40 minutes.
    When there is two minutes to go on the timer, add the asparagus.  Close the door and let it finish cooking.
    Remove and set aside to cool.  Wipe out the steam oven.
  2. Now combine the softened butter with remaining ingredients for the salmon topping and set aside.  It should be a spreadable consistency.
    Lay a piece of baking paper in a solid steam oven tray, add salmon and spread butter mixture over the top of the fillets. Do this 10 minutes before so to let the salmon come to room temperature.
    Preheat combi oven to 170°C Fan Plus while you prepare the salad.
    Slice the radish with a mandolin or slice very thinly.
    Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar and shake to combine.
    Add other salad ingredients now to the cooled barley, stir in half the dressing and set aside.  Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
  3. Now to cook the salmon; Select Combination Mode 170°C + 90% moisture add salmon and cook for 8-10 minutes until cooked to your liking.  Obviously the size of the fillets will determine the cooking time.
  4. Plate up the salad and serve with the pistachio nut topped salmon.  Drizzle with a little dressing and garnish.  Yum!

 

Posted in: Combi Steamer, Dinner parties, Fish, Salads / Tagged: , , , ,

Kale & salmon salad

January 7, 2019 7:30 am / Leave a Comment /

Kale & salmon salad

Time for some healthy eating after Christmas?

Had to join the health food craze and do a kale salad as it is really delicious with a Dijon mustard dressing and a bit of citrus.  A perfect excuse and another reason to have perfectly cooked salmon from the steam oven 🙂

You can alter the ingredients to what you have on hand.  I have used the baby kale leaves that you can buy now but if you use the large leaves, cut out the centre stem, wash well and slice thinly.

Of course, you can also substitute the lentils for cooked brown rice or quinoa.  This is really one of those delicious salads that is perfect for entertaining.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

2 pieces of salmon, skin and bones removed or 4 small pieces for individual serves
1 bag or bunch of kale, trimmed and sliced
2 blood oranges, rind removed from one and segmented
1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
1x 400g can lentils
large handful of green beans
½ cup roughly chopped dill
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted

Dressing:
3 tbsp. grape seed oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp honey
pinch salt and pepper

Method:

  1. Depending on the size of your salmon, steam @ 95°C for 2-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
  2. Put the green beans into the solid steamer tray, add the washed lentils and cook @ 100°C for 2 minutes.  Remove beans and drain any water from lentils.  Add the rind of one blood orange and stir through. Although the lentils are cooked they will absorb the flavours more if warmed.
  3. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small jar, taste and set aside.
  4. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a 140°C oven for about 10 minutes, they are so much nicer than straight from the packet.
  5. Mix most of the dressing through the salad, reserving a little for the top.
  6. Combine all the salad ingredients onto a large platter or individual plates depending on how you are serving.
  7. Flake or place the salmon on top, garnish with more dill, sprinkle over the seeds and serve.

Note:  This would be a delicious salad to serve for Christmas with its gorgeous colours!

 

 

Posted in: Christmas cookery, Fish, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Teriyaki salmon

July 7, 2017 4:35 pm / 8 Comments /

After our server was recently migrated I lost this last post, so here it is again in case you missed it.

Want perfectly crispy skin salmon without overcooking the salmon in the process?

Then try this method of marinading the salmon for a few minutes, steaming it and finishing it off in a pan if you don’t have a combi oven.  A great way to utilise the steam oven away from the traditional thinking that ‘steaming’ is always wet, pale food.  It is an excellent appliance for pre-cooking food that will save time plus retain the nutrients and flavours.

The results were excellent, quicker than cooking in the pan alone and with more accurate results the flesh was slightly pink in the centre which is the way we like to eat our salmon but with crispy skin which was slightly caramalised from the sugar in the sauce.  Exactly what you want with a decent teriyaki sauce.

I have utilised the pan for cooking some eggplant as well.  Apart from having an extra pan to wash up with this recipe it was all delicious!

Ingredients:  Serves 2

Teriyaki Sauce:  (This makes enough to put in a jar for other meals)

1/3 cup Mirin
½ cup soy (remember to use GF option)
2 tsp rice vinegar
½ tsp sesame oil
¼ cup castor sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 small pieces salmon, skin on
½ eggplant
dash of peanut oil

Steam oven rice here to serve and steamed green vegetables here.

Method:

  1. For the Teriyaki sauce, mix all ingredients into a screw top jar. Shake then open and stir until sugar dissolves.  Set aside.
  2. Check the salmon for any bones, wipe over with kitchen paper and place into the solid, perforated tray which has been lined with baking paper. Spoon over a little of the Teriyaki sauce to marinade the fish while you are waiting for the rice to cook.
  3. Now, wash your rice and follow the instructions on cooking
  4. Place into steam oven and set timer for 100°C for 17 minutes. Set another timer somewhere else to alert you in the last couple of minutes of this cooking time.
  5. Slice eggplant and salt to remove any bitter juices. Rinse off and pat dry.  Cut slices into quarters.
  6. Heat a non-stick frypan with a dash of peanut oil. Add eggplant and stir fry until golden and almost cooked through.
  7. When you have 1½ minutes remaining on the rice, open the steam oven and add the salmon and green vegetables. They can either be in a separate tray or just placed on top of the rice.  Close the door, depending on your steam oven the appliance hopefully will reheat again to 100°C.
  8. Remove the salmon, add skin side down to medium-hot pan with the eggplant pushed away to the sides. Now add 2 tablespoons of the Teriyaki sauce, let the skin fry a little then turn it over.  Don’t have the pan too hot or it will burn.  Cook for exactly 2 minutes in total.  Cooking times will depend on the size of your fish.

Remove and serve with the rice, steamed vegetables and drizzle over the sauce that has collected in the baking paper from the salmon.  You will have extra Teriyaki sauce if you wish to use that too.

 

Posted in: Fish, Gluten free, Japanese, Main Courses, Steam Oven

Korean bulgogi salmon

May 5, 2017 3:24 pm / 5 Comments /

Korean food is a cuisine that I love. However, I have to admit to not cooking it a lot myself, until now!  The best Korean food we have ever had was in New York City when the two of us sat at a four person table, completely covered with ‘side dishes’ that automatically came with the meal 🙂

This year I am going to try to cook a lot more Korean and Japanese food in both the combi and steam ovens and as I’m always on the lookout for salmon dishes this fits the bill perfectly.

This recipe has been prepared for all of you who have the newer models of combi steam ovens that have a top grill element or more precisely a Fan grill combination mode.  If you don’t have a top element in your combi like me then you can still cook this dish except you won’t get that deep caramelised browning you would expect.  You can see this from the photo.

Make sure you take your salmon out of the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature about 30 minutes before cooking otherwise you will need to cook it for longer.

Ingredients:  Serves 2

2 salmon fillets with skin on, cut in 2cm strips lengthwise (a great way to divide up those fillets that are way too big for one person)

Marinade:
1½ tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons of Mirin
juice half a lime or lemon
1 tablespoon honey
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons grated ginger

Method:

  1. Mix all marinade ingredients together, stirring to dissolve honey.
  2. Slice salmon leaving skin on.  The skin will hold the salmon together.
  3. Marinate in a flat dish in one layer for at least one hour.  Turn half way.
  4. While the salmon is marinating cook some steam oven rice here adding vegetables of your choice in with the rice towards the end of the cooking time.
  5. Remove the rice and vegetables and set aside.  Wipe out the steam oven and preheat the oven to 200°C.  I have found that you do need to preheat when cooking very quick-cooking items.
  6. Cover the flat baking tray with baking paper.  Lay the salmon slices out in a single layer on top.
  7. Switch the combi to Fan grill 200°C + 85% steam, add the salmon fillets in the upper part of the combi and cook for 3-5 minutes.  This will depend on how you like your salmon cooked, its size and temperature.
  8. Serve with steamed rice, green vegetables and purchased Korean kimchi.
Posted in: Combi Steamer, Fish, Korean, Main Courses

Spicy Sri Lankan fish

April 6, 2015 3:42 pm / Leave a Comment /

Spicy Sri Lankan fish

One of the great things about the steam oven is that you can very easily make delicious, spicy fish dishes like this with very little effort.  Have a look at some other fish recipes I have done in the ‘Fish category’. Some, like this and the Thai fish skewers here only take 5 minutes to cook plus the time to mix the marinade together.  Such impressive, easy dishes to cook and prepare.

This recipe is cooked in banana leaves or baking paper.  This way the spices will remain as a paste on the fish fillet without being diluted by the steam from the cooking process.  Plus you also get a delicious sauce!  You can also cook this in a conventional oven if you wish.  But, it is easier to steam it whilst you are cooking your rice and beans so the whole meal is cooked together.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

4 firm, white fish fillets of your choice eg Blue eye
pinch salt
juice half a lime or lemon
1 tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp ground black pepper
1 small onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp ginger, sliced
¼ tsp each ground cinnamon & cloves
4 branches of fresh curry leaves
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground chilli powder
1 tbsp. oil
Banana leaves or baking paper to wrap

Method:

  1. Place all the ingredients except the fish, curry leaves and banana leaves into a food processor or mortar & pestle and grind to a smooth paste.
  2. Lay the fish onto individual banana leaves large enough to wrap each individually.  Season with a little salt and pepper.
  3. Spread the paste all over the fish with a little under as well, place a branch of curry leaves over the top and wrap securely into a little parcel.  Repeat for each fillet.
  4. Set aside in the fridge for at least 30 minutes for the flavours to infuse.  Don’t leave it longer, the fish will start to cook.
  5. Steam @ 100°C for 5-7 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish fillet.  It should be just cooked, moist and juicy.

Serve on the plate in the leaves for people to open themselves or remove, leaving the curry leaves on for a garnish.  Try to have the ‘parcels’ opening at the top if you wish to serve them like this.

Serve with plain steamed rice here and vegetables of your choice.

Posted in: Fish, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Steam Oven

Barramundi with Syrian red pepper crust

January 25, 2015 11:37 am / Leave a Comment /

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

The great thing about a combi is that it will bake as well as steam.  One thing I love to do is use something that I have made in one form and transform it into something else.  That’s always a good way to do menu planning so there is no waste.  Don’t forget about that delicious dip you made last week which you can find the recipe for here, turn it into a mouth watering main course.

The baking effect with the steam actually ‘bakes and infuses’ this flavour into the fish.  It doesn’t have a lot of texture but if you like you can sprinkle some extra toasted walnuts over the top before you serve.  I haven’t done this in the picture but it would be delicious.  A perfect Summer meal that only needs a side salad.

Ingredients:

Thick barramundi or other white fish fillets, cut into serving size portions
½ cup Syrian red pepper, walnut and pomegranate dip
¼ cup extra toasted walnuts
Fresh parsley or coriander to garnish

Method:

  1. Cut fillets into thick, serving size pieces
  2. Preheat oven on Fan Plus 170°C
  3. Place fillets on a stainless steel tray lined with baking paper.
  4. Sprinkle with a little sea salt.
  5. Spread with a generous layer of dip.
  6. Let sit to come to room temperature for about 5 minutes.
  7. Place in combi steam oven.
  8. Select Combination Bake and cook 170°C + 90% moisture for 5-8 minutes or until cooked.  The timing will depend on the size and thickness of your fillets.  Mine were only 5 minutes.  Try to have all the fillets the same thickness, turn under tail sections if necessary.
  9. Serve with roughly chopped toasted walnuts and a parsley or coriander garnish.
Posted in: Combi Steamer, Fish, Gluten free

Thai seafood soup

October 24, 2014 8:28 am / Leave a Comment /

Thai seafood soup

This is the first soup I have cooked in the steam oven and is a great example of how you can cook multi levels, with different ingredients all at different times.

I did do the Steamed salmon in ginger broth here where the other ingredients were cooked in the steam oven but the stock was boiled to reduce on the stove top.

This is a quicker version of the classic Tom yum goong without making a paste or your own stock, however fish or prawn stock is very easy to make and only takes 20 minutes to cook.  If you would like to make it, make sure you fry the prawn heads and shells until they turn red before you add the water and other flavourings.  You then need to pound out the shells in a sieve to extract as much flavour as possible.

If you have the smaller, narrow depth steam oven then you will need to cook your soup in a larger, deeper dish of your choice as your solid steamer tray is too small for this quantity.  Increase your time to 8 minutes as cooking time is increased compared to cooking in stainless steel.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

4 cups fish or prawn stock
2-3 bird’s eye chillies, seeds removed or to your taste
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2 slices of ginger
4 spring onions, finely sliced
3 tbsp lime juice
1-2 tbsp. palm sugar or to taste
1-2 tbsp fish sauce or to taste (start with 1)
1 stick lemongrass, white part only smashed a little to ‘bruise it’
4 kaffir lime leaves, broken
500g fresh seafood of your choice (eg white fish, green prawns, salmon fillet etc)
Medium size packet (200g) thin bean thread or rice noodles (quantity is approx. a large handful each person)
Bunch of spinach, Asian bok choy or other greens
handful chopped coriander leaves
handful bean shoots (optional)
extra chilli to garnish (optional)

Method:

  1. Combine stock, chillies, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, white part of spring onions only and palm sugar and steam @ 100°C 6 minutes on the bottom shelf.
  2. If using rice noodles, soak them in boiling water.
  3. In the soup, add the fish sauce & lime juice, taste the stock and adjust flavour.  It should have that Thai salty, sweet & sour hit.  Add the bean thread noodles if using and stir to soften in the stock.
  4. Peel and devein the prawns, cut the fish into bite size pieces and place on perforated tray above the stock.  No need to add baking paper.  Cook @ 85°C for 2 minutes.
  5. Slice your bok choy or spinach into bit size pieces and add in another tray for a further 2 minutes @ 85°C.  If using baby spinach there is no need to pre-cook.  Just place into the bottom of the bowl.  If your prawns are already cooked, add them now to warm through.
  6. Ladle the soup into four bowls, removing the lemongrass, ginger and kaffir lime leaves and add the seafood and vegetables.

Garnish with the bean shoots, fresh herbs, spring onion tops, extra chilli and a wedge of lime.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Dinner parties, Fish, Gluten free, Soups, Steam Oven, Thai

Steamed snapper with black bean & garlic sauce

October 13, 2014 6:17 am / Leave a Comment /

Steamed snapper with black bean & garlic

This is my version of a recipe from China Doll, using the commercial black bean and garlic paste that you can buy from a Chinese grocery store and adding to the paste with chilli, lemon and soy to give the fish a delicious flavour.

Perfectly and easily cooked in the steam oven, you wonder if you would bother trying to steam a whole snapper on a plate in a Chinese basket?  I think I did it once for a small fish and it was really difficult to remove.  You wouldn’t be able to fit this size snapper into a steamer basket in any case.  It is impossible to overcook the fish in a steam oven which makes cooking whole fish just a whole lot easier, not to mention healthier!

To finish, you can if you wish, heat some peanut oil until smoking and pour it over the fish at the table put personally I prefer to cut out the extra fat content as there is plenty of flavour in this dish already.

A nice change from the traditional ginger and garlic snapper here.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-5

1 whole 1.3kg snapper, cleaned and scaled
½ tsp sesame oil
1-2 garlic cloves
1 long red chilli, chopped + 1/2 for garnish
2 tbsp. black bean & garlic paste
1 tbsp. soy sauce
½ lemon, rind and juice
handful of coriander leaves
2-3 whole spring onions

Method:

  1. In a mortar and pestle pound the garlic, chopped chilli and its seeds with the lemon rind and a little sea salt until smooth.
  2. Add the black bean and garlic paste, soy and sesame oil and mix together.
  3. Score the fish into diamond shapes through the skin on both sides.
  4. Rub the paste into the fish, making sure that it penetrates into the cuts.
  5. Place fish into the large steamer tray on top of the whole spring onions.  This will stop it from sticking.
  6. Cook @ 90°C for 15 minutes.
  7. Pour over the juice of half a lemon and move onto a large serving platter.
  8. Top with the chopped coriander and sliced chilli.
  9. Serve with steamed jasmine rice that you can put into the steam oven first for 10 minutes @ 100°C then drop the temperature back to 90°C for the cooking time with the fish as above.

Note:  Cooking time for a smaller, say 700g snapper would be 10-12 minutes.

 

Posted in: Fish, Gluten free, Main Courses, Steam Oven

Smoked salmon on zucchini fritters

July 31, 2014 10:45 pm / Leave a Comment /

Smoked Salmon on Zucchini Fritters

We were invited to a Christmas in July in the mountains last weekend so I decided I would make these and serve them as one larger portion per person, plated up as entrée.

A great recipe to also make as smaller fritters for finger food, it is moist and a nice change from the standard blini.  It would also be delicious, warm for a posh brunch with some eggs from the steam oven!

For the entrée size make your fritters approximately 9cm in diameter.  I used a large cutter or ring, greased in the pan to make each one the perfect size and left the mix to set for a couple of minutes before removing.  Don’t overheat the pan as they will burn and not cook through.  Cook slowly and remove to cool on a wire rack.

To transport, stack each pancake between plastic wrap.  The options for the filling are up to you; cream cheese, ricotta or crème fraiche would all be excellent.  I did goats curd mixed with a little chopped dill.  Serve with some lemon, tiny capers, thinly sliced red onion and a few leaves tossed in a little dressing.

Ingredients:  Serves 12 as entrée or 40 as finger food

2½ cups coarsely grated zucchini
2 eggs, beaten
60g butter
2 spring onions finely sliced
1-2 tbsp. milk
¼ cup grated parmesan
½ tsp salt
black pepper
½ cup plain flour
¼ cup self raising flour

Method:

  1. Preheat flat char-grill plate or tepanyaki plate.  If you don’t have one then use a non stick frypan
  2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well until combined.
  3. Grease your cooking plate or frypan with a little olive oil spray.
  4. Spoon mixture into the ring onto char grill plate or frypan and cook on medium heat until you see small bubbles appear on the surface.  If you are making 12 as I did for entrée size be careful not to put too much mixture into the first batch as I ran a bit short by the last few.  Use about one and a half dessertspoons and spread into the ring with the back of the spoon.
  5. Turn, they should be well browned but not burnt.  They do take a while to cook, don’t turn too early.
  6. Cook on the other side until cooked through.

Serve with topping of your choice.

 

 

 

Posted in: Breakfast/Brunch, Christmas cookery, Dinner parties, Entrees, Fish, Party Food

Vietnamese noodle salad with salmon

February 11, 2014 7:32 pm / 2 Comments /

Vietnamese salad

You don’t usually see a Vietnamese noodle salad with salmon so I thought I would give it a go and add a few other ingredients to make it more substantial.  After all, you can never have too many salmon recipes with a steam oven!

A perfect Summer salad, it would also be ideal served with marinated, grilled and sliced chicken or fresh prawns.

You can substitute the vegetables for whatever you have to hand.  Snow peas or sugar snap peas would be nice too.  If using snow peas that are large slice them in half on the diagonal so they are easier to eat.

Timing on the salmon is for ‘pink in the middle’ smaller fillets.  Adjust your cooking times to suit.  I use to recommend to cook whole fillets at 95°C and fillets to flake at 100°C.  I now think 95°C is enough for both.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

½ large packet rice noodles or 2 small packets thin ‘bean thread’ noodles
2-4 salmon fillets, skin removed
1 medium carrot, grated
handful green beans, halved
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
¼ cup each chopped coriander & Vietnamese mint
1 cup bean shoots, soaked in ice water and drained
½ telegraph cucumber, seeds removed and sliced diagonally
¼ cup toasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Dressing:

2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp brown or palm sugar

Method:

  1. Cover the noodles in boiling water for 4-5 minutes.  Run a little cold water over the noodles and set aside to drain and cool.
  2. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper and put into the perforated steamer tray with the beans on the side.
  3. Cook the salmon and beans @ 95ºC for 3 minutes.  Refresh beans in ice water and drain.  You may need longer for a large piece of salmon see comments above.
  4. Shake the dressing ingredients together in a jar.
  5. Plate up with the salad in the centre, small ‘nests’ of noodles on the side and the salmon flaked over the top.
  6. Sprinkle with toasted peanuts and extra coriander and drizzle the dressing over to taste.
Posted in: Fish, Gluten free, Main Courses, Salads, Steam Oven