Our best salmon recipes include everything from our pan-fried salmon fillet recipe with tips to how to get a perfectly crispy salmon skin to a Vietnamese caramelised fish recipe made with salmon and Russian salmon potato salad and smoked salmon blini. Our best salmon recipes are not only easy salmon recipes that come together quickly, they’re healthy salmon recipes.
If you’re a regular reader you would have noticed that we’ve been publishing some salmon recipes recently. Perhaps the biggest pandemic food trend here in Cambodia is the salmon trend – more on that in another post! – which means that my favourite fish is readily available and affordable.
For a country and culinary culture that has traditionally eaten freshwater fish from the rivers and lakes that can often have a muddy taste, the fashion and passion for salmon, an ocean fish who loves icy waters, is both surprising and not so surprising. What’s not to love about salmon?
Salmon is one of the most delicious fish thanks to its fattiness (don’t worry, they’re healthy fats!), which give salmon a sublime richness, along with the soft texture of salmon, and salmon’s sweetness – which is also what makes it a perfect match for the shari, the vinegar rice that’s the main component of sushi.
Salmon is super healthy. It’s high in vitamins, especially B vitamins, is rich in high quality protein, and is high in potassium. Salmon is also one of the most nutritious foods thanks to those good fats – omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential and responsible for good stuff such as reducing inflammation, improving cell function, decreasing blood pressure, and reducing the risk of strokes and cancer.
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Best Salmon Recipes From Perfect Pan-Fried Salmon to Smoked Salmon Blini
Our best salmon recipes include everything from Vietnamese caramelised fish recipe made with salmon to a pan-fried salmon fillet recipe with Irish colcannon and tips to how to get a perfectly crispy salmon skin.
Traditional Khmer Raw Fish Salad Recipe with Salmon for the Cambodian Style Ceviche Called Phlea Trei
This traditional Khmer raw fish salad recipe for phlea trei makes a Cambodian ceviche usually made with a local firm white fish ‘cooked’ in citrus juice. It’s an ancient Khmer dish that feels contemporary, which is why it can be found on the menus of Cambodia’s finest Cambodian restaurants. As we use sashimi quality salmon for this dish, we’ve not marinated the salmon and allowed it to ‘cook’ in the citrus-based dressing as it traditionally is, however, the dish still has the same wonderful flavour profile and texture. It’s a fantastic dish that, as impressive as it looks, is easy to make and comes together quickly. When served in Siem Reap restaurants it’s a visual feast for the eyes, the plates prettily strewn with edible flowers – the use of which is very traditional, not merely a contemporary flourish.
Pan-Fried Salmon Fillets with Colcannon Recipe Plus Tips to How to Get a Perfect Crispy Salmon Skin
This salmon fillet with colcannon recipe has been a favourite since we first tasted the dish at restaurant Banc in Sydney some years ago. The crispy skinned salmon fillet was cooked to perfection, the colcannon was creamy and rich, and while the red wine sauce seemed an unusual choice, its acidity worked well with a mouthful of the other ingredients. If you love Terence’s creamy mashed potatoes recipe as much as I do, then you’re going to adore this colcannon recipe. If you’re not familiar with colcannon, it’s a classic Irish mashed potato dish with kale or cabbage and spring onions, and can entertain other ingredients, such as bacon or pancetta. We also provide tips for cooking salmon. A lot of people get nervous cooking salmon, but it’s actually one of the simplest fish to cook. The most difficult part is carefully scoring the skin. Tip: use your sharpest knife. More tips to frying salmon and getting a perfect crispy salmon skin in the post.
Russian Salmon Potato Salad Recipe with Soft-Boiled Eggs, Gherkins, Capers and Dill
My Russian salmon potato salad recipe with soft-boiled eggs, capers, gherkins and dill makes a filling salad that you can eat year-round and it’s easily another of our best salmon recipes. In the cool season, you can serve it with warm potatoes and seared salmon straight from the pan, while it can be refrigerated for warm weather meals, such as summer barbecues and spring picnics. Pan-sear the salmon to your liking; tips above in the salmon fillet with colcannon recipe. We like our salmon just done if we’re eating this immediately but I’d recommend cooking it right through if you’re making it ahead and even refrigerating it for the next day. You can add dollops of caviar for a special meal and replace the fresh salmon with smoked salmon. For the soft-boiled eggs, Terence has an excellent guide to boiling perfect eggs every time.
Vietnamese Clay Pot Caramelised Fish Recipe with Salmon, Turmeric, Dill, and Peanuts
This easy Vietnamese caramelised fish recipe with fresh turmeric, fragrant dill and peanuts is another of our best salmon dishes which comes together quickly, despite the fact you need to pound a marinade and paste in a mortar and pestle. It’s great exercise for the arms, trust me! Called ‘Vietnamese clay pot fish with fresh dill’ at Hoi An’s Red Bridge Cooking School where we first learnt to make it – because it’s traditionally cooked in a clay pot – the dish is a combination of two Vietnamese specialties, chả cá lã vọng from the North and cá kho tộ from the South. Our cooking instructor recommended it be made with either salmon, mackerel, salmon, snapper, sea bass, basa, or catfish – I’ve eaten it with trout in Sapa – but we make this dish with salmon because it’s absolutely delicious and is enormously popular here and readily available. I also adore it because salmon and dill are a perfect match. While you could certainly use salmon steaks, I prefer smaller pieces of salmon as they better absorb the turmeric marinade better, and work well with steamed rice or noodles.
Traditional Russian Fish Soup Recipe for Ukha Made with Salmon
This Russian fish soup recipe for ukha is one of my best salmon recipes. It’s also a family recipe based on a centuries-old traditional Russian soup said to be a favourite of emperors and peasants alike. It’s an easy soup recipe, made with fresh salmon fillets, spices, vegetables, and dill. Historically it was a fisherman’s soup, made with several types of fish, such as perch, pike, trout, and/or salmon, so feel free to add other fish to this soup, although salmon keeps me very sated. I love to make a big pot of this salmon soup and freeze half in separate containers which I like to heat up for lunches. Serve with plenty of fresh fragrant dill, sour cream and dark rye bread.
Buckwheat Pancakes Recipe for Blini with Smoked Salmon, Dill and Sour Cream
This Russian buckwheat pancakes recipe makes blini with smoked salmon, dill, sour cream, and a ‘caviar’ of gherkin and radish and it’s another of our best salmon recipes. These are cocktail size blini that are perfect for snacking and entertaining. More like pikelets than pancakes, my blini recipe calls for smoked salmon, dill, sour cream, and a ‘caviar’ of gherkin and radish that’s inspired by the Russian eggplant caviar salad called ikra. But yes, of course you could make these salmon blini with real caviar. I’m just conscious that we’re still in the midst of a pandemic and some of us (cough cough) may no longer be able to afford the luxury of caviar. These salmon blini are for those of us currently on a Prosecco rather than a Champagne budget!
Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon Recipe for Christmas Breakfast
This scrambled eggs with smoked salmon recipe has become our go-to eggs recipe for Christmas breakfast and it’s another of our best salmon recipes. It’s decadent and delicious, especially when served with bubbly. We published this smoked salmon scrambled eggs recipe over a decade again during our year-long global grand tour that launched Grantourismo back in 2010. The trip was all about inspiring you all to live like locals, travel more slowly and settle into places, and travel more experientially. In each place we settled into for two weeks we learnt to cook local dishes or created dishes inspired by the places we were in and made them in our holiday rental kitchen. This dish fell into the latter category and it was so special to enjoy it for Christmas breakfast in Krakow, Poland, near the end of our grand tour.
Please do let us know if you make any of our best salmon recipes as we’d love to know how they turn out for you.
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