Perfectly Cooked Salmon – The Mumbai Maska Way

Salmon is renowned as the world’s most luxurious and delicious fish. Its delicate mild flavour is different to other types of seafood and its texture is versatile and can use in many different recipes. Not only is salmon beautiful to eat and to cook with it, but it is also a wonder for your body. A well-known superfood, salmon contains a high concentration of Omegas -3 and -6 as well as an abundance of Potassium.

Although salmon is a marvel to cook with, a lot of people (especially beginners) are put off adding it to their recipes as it can be notorious for being a meat that needs to be cooked just right.  Nowadays Salmon is also available in all Indian restaurants too, you can enjoy it there if you don’t have that much time for cooking at home.

How to know when to stop cooking

As salmon can be tricky to know when it is ready, a lot of people end up with dry, rubbery salmon from cooking too long (better to be safe than sorry, right?). This list below should help shine some light on the proper cooking times when using different cooking methods. Times will vary depending on the size of the fish – use this as a guide only.

• Pan-fry – 4-5 minutes with the skin side cooking in the pan. Flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Rest for 3 minutes.
• Oven-baked – 12-15 minutes at 200°C/Gas Mark 6/400°F
• Grilled – 5 minutes skin side up, flip and then 5 more minutes.
• Poached – 25 minutes in a pan of gently simmering water.
• Steamed – 10-15 minutes wrapped in parchment or foil.

How to tell when it’s done

Salmon that is medium rare is still safe to eat. Like steak, it all comes down to preference. A good tip to know when testing how far along your salmon is cooking is to slide a sharp knife into the thickest section of the salmon and then carefully touch it to your bottom lip. If it feels barely warm, it should be cooked rare. Warm should be medium-rare and hot will be cooked through.

What goes best with salmon?

As salmon is a delicate blank canvas, it is incredibly versatile and you can mix and match flavours to your hearts content. Classically, salmon is paired with a squeezing of lemon and a sprinkling of salt and pepper but you can experiment with anything you fancy such as pesto, salsa or a mix of spices rubbed in before cooking.