Name: Sautéed Salmon with Thai-Style Coconut Broth
Yield: Makes 6 Main-Course Servings
Cuisine: Thailand
Ingredients: salt; 4 Thai chilies or 4 jalapeño peppers, stemmed, halved, seeded, and chopped fine; ¼ cup Thai fish sauce or more to taste; 6 kaffir lime leaves or six 1- by ¼-inch strips lime zest; salt (or ½ recipe brine); 1½ tablespoons peanut oil or olive oil, for sautéing the salmon; ¼ cup lime juice (from 1 or 2 limes); 1 pound or two 10-ounce bunches fresh spinach, stems removed, leaves washed until no sand remains, or one 10-ounce bag pre-washed spinach leaves, washed once again.; salt (optional); 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro; one 15-ounce can coconut milk (preferably a brand from Thailand—don’t use sweetened coconut milk used for making piña coladas); four ⅛-inch thick slices galangal (available at Asian groceries), optional; pepper; six 6- to 8-ounce salmon fillets with the skin on or off; 2 shallots or 1 small red onion, peeled and chopped fine; 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine and crushed to a paste with the side of a chefs’ knife; 1 stalk lemon grass

Preparation info

Makes
6
Main-Course Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Simply Salmon

By James Peterson

Published 2001

About

The great thing about Thai-flavored broths is that you don’t need to start with fish or chicken broth because the ingredients are so full of flavor that you can use water. In some parts of the country, tracking down all the ingredients can be a bit of a nuisance (although they’re easily mail-ordered—see sources—and keep for at least a year in the freezer), but once you have them on hand, making the broth is a snap. I like to put a mound of spinach in each bowl