Salmon with Red Thai Curry Sauce & Thai Black Rice

Well, that was a loooonggggg week! Apologies for not blogging more this week, but working 70 hours a week leaves little time for fun things like cooking and blogging. But, I have a peace offering - the recipe for the most wonderful thai curry sauce you've ever tasted. Serve on some broiled salmon with thai black rice and you've got yourself and exotic and delicious meal! Note that thai black rice seems to take significantly longer to cook than regular white rice, so if you're in a rush, stick with jasmine or basmati rice that don't take quite as long to cook. :)

Salmon with Red Thai Curry Sauce & Thai Black Rice
Recipe minimally adapted from No More Secrets

Ingredients:

• 4 fillets fresh wild salmon
• kosher salt
• thai seasoning
• sesame seed oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
• 5 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 - 1/2 tbsp fresh, hot curry powder (if you're using grocery store curry powder, use 1 tbsp)
• 4 tbsp red thai curry paste
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 - 14oz can coconut milk
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp tamari sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar, packed
• thai black rice, cooked according to package directions

Method:

1. First make the red thai curry sauce - saute the garlic and the ginger with the 5 tbsp oil in a medium saucepan. Add coriander, curry powder, thai red curry paste, paprika and cumin, one at a time, stirring well between additions to allow the fragrance to develop.
2. Whisk in the coconut milk, tomato paste, tamari and brown sugar. Bring to a boil and transfer to a jar. It will keep refrigerated for up to three days.
3. To cook the salmon, preheat your oven to 375F. Line a baking tray with foil and place salmon, skin side down on the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle generously with thai seasoning and kosher salt. Drizzle with a bit of sesame oil. Bake in preheated oven for 12 - 15 minutes or until salmon is cooked through.
4. Serve salmon on a bed of black rice, drizzled with thai red curry sauce and sprinkled with fresh cilantro leaves.

This is restaurant quality food that you can serve up at home - on a budget!! Gotta love that right? Hope you enjoy this! I think the key is to use good, fresh salmon and high quality spices (especially the curry paste and curry powder). I get my curry powder from a wonderful woman in my home town - she toasts and grinds her own blend of curry powder and sells it - all of the proceeds go back to India to great charitable causes there. This curry powder is some of the hottest and most flavourful curry I've ever tasted and a little goes a long way. If you're using "regular" curry powder from the grocery store, be sure to use at least double what I've quoted above as you will need that much to get anywhere near the flavour I got from my "special" curry powder.

This post has been linked up with Fusion Fridays over at Jennifer Cooks! Hop on over there and check out what other delicious goodies fellow bloggers have been making this week. :)

Happy Cooking my Friends! Hope you have a most wonderful weeked. :)