Asian-Barbecue Glazed Salmon and Ginger-Spiced Coconut Rice. Wow!!

We had a fantastic dinner last night!! Sooo, so yummy. A new favorite, that's for sure. And we got the boys to eat fish!! That is ALWAYS an achievement. In fact, Joe liked it so much he wanted leftovers! There weren't any, but still. Victory. Asian Barbecue Glazed Salmon and  Ginger Spiced Coconut Rice . Doesn't that just sound decadent and delicious?? It was!! Although, I messed up the rice, because I tried to do it in a rice cooker instead of stovetop. So I won't post my results, I just posted the link to the original at The English Kitchen. Even messed up, it was delicious though!! Mine was just a bit gooey-er than it was supposed to be. The salmon is straight out of Cooks Illustrated. Hats off to them for just about any meat/fish recipe I have tried, spot on for cooking things well! The original is here, although you can't access the online recipes unless you have an account. So I have duplicated them with all credit, as best I can. Just trying to do this thing right!! We used frozen salmon, if it's wild-caught it will be as good or better than any fresh you can get. Unless you are in one of those wonderful places where you can get REALLY fresh salmon. If so, I envy you. 

Asian-BBQ Glazed Salmon (from Cooks Illustrated)

Printable Recipe

Published January 1, 2011.   From Cook's Illustrated.
Asian Barbecue Glaze 

2tablespoons ketchup
2tablespoons hoisin sauce 

2tablespoons rice vinegar
2tablespoons light brown sugar
1tablespoon soy sauce
1tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1teaspoon Asian chili-garlic sauce (I just used chili sauce, like Sambal Olek)
1teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1. Whisk ingredients together in small saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat; simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
Glazed Salmon (makes 4-6 fillets

1/2teaspoon kosher salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/4teaspoon cornstarch
4center-cut skin-on salmon fillets, 6 to 8 ounces each (see note)
Ground black pepper
1teaspoon vegetable oil
1recipe glaze (see above)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine brown sugar, salt, and cornstarch in small bowl. Pat salmon dry with paper towels and season with pepper. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture evenly over top of flesh side of salmon, rubbing to distribute.

1. Heat oil in 12-inch ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place salmon, flesh side down, in skillet and cook until well browned, about 1 minute. Using tongs, carefully flip salmon and cook on skin side for 1 minute.
   
   Remove skillet from heat and spoon glaze evenly over salmon fillets. (Mmmm, this glaze is so yummy!!)
   
   Transfer skillet to oven and cook until center of thickest part of fillets registers 125 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is still translucent when cut into with paring knife, 7 to 10 minutes. (If you don't have an oven-safe skillet, or it is too small to hold all fillets, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake on there) Transfer fillets to platter or individual plates and serve.
   
   These certainly aren't my greatest pictures ever, but YUM!! I recommend keeping a bit of the glaze to drizzle over your fish at the end. I am not a HUGE fish lover, but I ate almost all of this big ole' fillet, and it was awesome. Especially with the coconut ginger rice!! I would have added another teaspoon of ginger to this batch, but again, I cooked it wrong, so it probably would have been perfect.
   
   Creamy coconut rice with a bit of heat with this tangy, spicy (just a little!) mouthwatering glaze, and perfectly cooked salmon... I ate them together every bite. They were good friends. I can't imagine making them separately ever again! I even got a little more rice when the salmon was gone, just to pick up that last smear of glaze on my plate :) And cool fresh cantalope to finish. We love fruit with dinner!
   
   If my kids liked it, there is a decent chance yours will too. Or your husband, or pet... whoever you cook for.
   Now enough of this real food nonsense, tomorrow I get back to baking!!