When I served this for dinner the other night, my husband pronounced, “This is the best thing you’ve ever made.” As you can imagine, I’ve made him a lot of things over the years, so I took that as extremely high praise. Plus, if you’re like me, you’re constantly on the lookout for new and different ways to make salmon. This might require a trip to the store (assuming you don’t regularly stock lemongrass), but once you corral the ingredients, it’s really easy to make. Served with sticky rice and broccoli, it makes a slightly special, even a little exotic, midweek meal — hey, not a bad idea once in a while.

Since my seven-year-old daughter is still kind of sauce-averse, I pulled a hunk of the fish out of the pan after the browning step. I finished her salmon in the oven while the rest was simmering in the sauce. And lastly, I wouldn’t be much of a “food evangelist” if I didn’t plea with you to consider buying wild Pacific salmon (instead of farmed). If you’re unsure about safe and sustainable seafood choices, check out the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Recommendations. Also, I wrote a post on this very subject last year, in case you’re interested. I find the subject fascinating, by the way.

Salmon with Thai-Style Red Curry Sauce
Ingredients

1 large salmon fillet (1-2 lbs.)
1 tbs. olive oil
1 (14-oz.) can light coconut milk
1 stalk dried lemongrass
2 green onions, chopped
2 tbs. Thai red curry paste
Juice of 1/2 lime
Veggies (any combination of chopped red or yellow peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, or onions)
2 tbs. chopped cilantro leaves
Salt & pepper

Sprinkle salmon with salt. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add oil. When the pan is hot, add the fish (skin side up) and cook for 4 minutes until browned on the flesh side. Remove fish from the pan and set aside. Add scallions and saute for a minute, then stir in the coconut milk, lemongrass stalk, and curry paste. Place salmon back in the pan, skin side down this time, and simmer it in the sauce for about 10 minutes. Add vegetables and simmer until they’re cooked, another 10 minutes. At this point, the salmon should be cooked through, but if it’s still too rare for you, simmer another 5 minutes. Stir in cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Remove lemongrass. Serve over sticky sushi rice or short-grain brown rice with a generous squeeze of Sriracha (totally optional but totally addictive).

In case you missed it, I posted a new class schedule for Spring 2012. Check out my NEW fun offerings!