A quick and easy salmon curry that is made by poaching salmon in creamy coconut milk.
These days when I am at the supermarket, I am mostly found at the seafood section. With good reason. I am expecting a visit from family and since they love seafood, I thought I would use this opportunity to increase my repertoire of seafood recipes. At home I usually don’t cook a lot of seafood. Fortunately, we have easy access to a variety of seafood in our city so eating it outside is such a convenient option.
So while planning on my menu I decided on quick and easy ones at home. The exotic ones, I leave it to the experts. The prep is something I don’t enjoy at all. I can be weird that way. Ask me to bake a 4 tiered cake. I will weigh out every individual component, sieve the flour, make two different frostings, think of fancy garnishes…basically take care of every little detail. But when it comes to savory dishes, I look for short cuts. Quick and easy does it for me. So if there is a dish that cooks under 30 minutes I will find it. And make it. And blog about it.
Salmon is easy to cook, it has huge health benefits and is available pretty much in any supermarket these days. All I need to do is pick up a pack that is already cleaned and prepped and store it till I need it. If I am pan frying it, I buy the ones with skin or if it’s a curry like this one, I would prefer the skin to be removed. Lately, I have discovered a great way of eating it is poaching it in a curry or sauce. That way it becomes a one-pot meal and the salmon remains juicy and succulent. It takes less than 5 minutes to make the paste and 5-6 minutes to cook the salmon. And there you go. You have a pot of fragrant curry ready on the table.
Coconut Poached Salmon (Curry in a Hurry)
Serves 4
5 cm piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only (remove the hard outer covering)
4-5 kaffir lime leaves
1-2 red chillies, stalk removed
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
400 ml can coconut milk
500g skinless salmon fillets (about 4 fillets, cut into 5 cm cubes)
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp palm sugar (optional)
Salt, to taste
Coriander leaves for garnish
Basil leaves for garnish
Place the ginger, lime leaves, lemongrass and chilli in the bowl of a small food processor and process to a paste.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the ginger lemongrass paste and stir for 3-4 minutes till fragrant.
Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, palm sugar (if using), salt and gently simmer for 2 minutes. Add the salmon fillets and simmer for another 4-5 minutes till salmon is cooked through (pink in the centre).
Garnish with coriander and basil leaves. Serve with jasmine rice.
I love the sound of ‘curry in a hurry’! : ) Even though I’ve been cooking and trying out more savory recipes lately, I’m still mostly relying on quick, fast, and easy, too. My son adores salmon and I bake it often. I’ve been thinking about trying to poach it. This makes me want to do it!
I’m not much of a seafood person, as you know, and I’m especially afraid of it in curries, but this looks fabulous! I’ve been trying to muster up the courage to make a fish curry, you know Indian cuisine has a few too, maybe this is the inspiration I need. Looks gorgeous!
I love seafood. This “curry in a hurry” sounds fabulous. Love the flavor pair of lemongrass and coconut.
Shortcuts are what I do too all the time. Basically its about time factor yet a simple home cooked meal.
I can pretty much get all the ingredients over here and Salmon is my other half’s fav; he practically survives on fish almost every day. Shall and will try this lovely creamy and Asian scented curry.
Shortcuts and one-pot meals are the way to go. This curry looks amazing and so nice with fresh fish in it.
This looks wonderful! Yeah sometimes shortcuts leads to wonderful and delicious recipes…
What a beautiful way to prepare salmon…I love shortcuts…why not? Looks so tasty with all the spices in the coconut milk…I must give this a try.
Thanks for the recipe and have a wonderful week 😀
Oh my gosh… Yum! This would be up there in my top 3 favourite kind of things to eat. Looks fantastic!
Krissie x – http://pearlsofstyle.blogspot.com.au/
This looks like such a delicious, tasty and light dish. Thanks for sharing.
I love the name: Curry in a hurry!!! 🙂 I need to make it one of these days. My family will be happy to have it over rice — although I’d have to make mine with another type of fish. Although salmon is a popular fish, my family and I are not fans. The pics are so gorgeous that I am pinning them to my food styling board.
Heya! It is my second time here. I found this web site and I find It really useful and it helped me out quite a bit. I would like to give something back and aid others like you helped me.
I made this recipe and it’s DELICIOUS!!!! Couldn’t be easier. It was a crowd pleaser for sure.
I had to use yellow curry paste in stead of chillis and it turned out well. I put a lid on the pan once I put the salmon in and it steamed/poached the fish nicely. Served it over rice (which was boiled with parsley, onions and tumeric for an change from plain white rice).
I will for sure make this again!! Thank you.
Yay! So happy to hear that Laura. Yellow curry paste sounds divine in this dish..can’t wait to add next time when I am making it. Thank you so much for letting me know.
Amazing!! I tweaked a little added spinach and Brussels sprouts. Sooo good. Thanks!!!