Today, before the weekend I would like to introduce a very nice dish which was actually my creativity. This dish is called Salmon Salad. It was inspired by the local restaurant I had worked for a year in New Zealand. It was good that salmon is NZ is fresh and a lot cheaper than that in Cambodia.
However, working in a restaurant as a helper I saw they use salmon a lot either in a soup or salad. I came back home and tried making it into salad. It came out, my adjustment was very good and my flat mate really loved it back then. It became our meeting dinner every week. Not any meeting would miss this dish They would buy everything for me to do it.
Salad or Nhoim in Khmer (ញាំ) is not new but using salmon is not common in Cambodia. We often use freshwater fish or seafood in the any dish. Meat that are commonly used in our kitchen are chicken, beef and pork. Fish salad is rare! Oh, I ate salmon the first time in my life while I was in NZ only. To be honest, the smell is not very pleasant but I could get rid of them, read below how to do it to know the trick…
Ingredients:
Meat: salmon fish, 0.5kg (depends on people) [fresh or frozen], shrimp [optional], pig skin [optional]
Sauce: Normal mixed fish sauce and Koh Kong sauce [the sauce is very good to get rid of the smell, make great flavor]
Meat: salmon fish: clean and slice them very thin, keep in a bowl. Shrimp boil in fresh milk for 2-3mns, peel them and keep aside. Pig skin, boil for 15mns, take out from the pot and cut in very thin piece, keep aside.
Sauce: Normal mixed fish sauce: mix fish sauce with shred garlic and shallot, adding cut chili into it. Add sugar and lemon as per the taste you like. Koh Kong sauce can find how to do it here in very details of my previous article. The sauce is very good to get rid of the smell, make great flavor and make salmon very pleasant to eat. Mixed fish sauce or Koh Kong sauce
Spice: lemon, cut and pressure for the sauce. Chili, cut into small piece. Garlic, shred them and keep aside.
Vegetables: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, basil, spring onion, baby spinach, carrot, cabbage: clean them all and cut. Carrot and cucumber must be shred in small pieces. Tomato slice them for decoration. Lime can be sliced for decoration too.
How to actually mix a salad:
Step 1: Salmon: salmon must be soaked in the Koh Kong sauce for 10-15mns [the sour, hot and sweet taste of Koh Kong sauce helps get ride the smell].
Step 2: Mix salad: in a big pot or bowl, put shred carrot, cucumber, and other herbs inside. Pick salmon from the soaking sauce and put in this bowl. Pour mixed fish sauce into the bowl. Add boiled pig skin into it as well (if you eat it). Stir it for a bit, taste it and add mixed sauce more to fit your taste.
Step 3: Prepare a place: arrange lettuce/ tomato as decoration in a big salad bowl as the first layer. Arrange boiled shrimp on top of that. Then pick the mixed salad from the bowl to put on the decoration plate. You are ready to go here!
Friends in Japan, you may want to try my recipe @HiroyukiTakisawa@user_not_found san, @yamamo_cchi chan, I know your salmon is very good which is very proper to do this dish.
Thank you for tagging me, @Sophia_Cambodia
It looks delicious! Of course, salmon salad is a popular dish here but I have never used your koh kong sauce. I confirmed your recipe now, my wife maybe like it We’ll try it. Thank you!
I’m very happy to hear that @HiroyukiTakisawa san. If someday I got a chance to visit Japan, I will probably make this for you and your wife as a treat! I’m serious
Very nice platting @Sophia_Cambodia I love your creation! Actually salmon salad with rice a.k.a poke bowl is a current trend here in Jakarta. But due to Covid-19, I’m not sure if it’s safe to eat raw meat/seafood. Last time I went to sushi restaurant with my friends and we ended up ordering the fully cooked toppings for our sushi
I’m not really sure about it, too @Sophia_Cambodia I can’t eat too much spicy foods, so I will patiently wait until this pandemic ends to eat raw food again
My bf is not a fan to spicy food or raw food too @Velvel but when I made it for him while I visit him, he was like… dear make this again and do bring them to offer to the monk in the temple. I asked him: is it good? He said HELL YES!
You can actually do it with cooked beef as well @Velvel I tried last week and my siblings love it. They said I should do it often and it actually tastes almost like the one made by professionals. I need to practice few more times to get the same taste.
For the sauce, you can skip the mixed fish sauce. Using only Koh Kong sauce as the base is also a good idea. Chili, garlic and lime in Koh Kong sauce is already a good ingredients for the salad. Add only vegetables more and they are ready to serve.
They would buy everything for me to do it.
We’ll try it. Thank you!
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