Andy Makes Turmeric Salmon With Coconut

I feel like I need glasses right now.

Look at me. Oh.

Whole new, no no. Oh, wow.

[Camera Operator] Yeah, top button too.

Top button? Yeah.

You know I turned 30 a little while ago.

So I feel very like, everything has,

a new apron, a collared shirt, glasses.

A few extra white hairs.

I'm a whole new guy.

[Camera Operator] We're shooting and releasing

this in 2020; new year, new Andy.

Okay. [laughing]

[laid-back instrumental music]

Today we are making a salmon dish

from our Feel Good Food Plan.

We've been doing the Feel Good Food Plan now

for three years, myself and Chris Morocco.

This dish ended up becoming

kind of my favorite dish that I developed this year.

It's a salmon dish, it's kind of

a one-skillet salmon dish with greens.

I'm using Swiss chard today

but you could use really whatever hearty greens you like.

And then it all gets slowly roasted in the oven.

And then what goes on top is this

crispy, crunchy, definitely quite spicy topping

of coconut and chili and garlic.

It's like a coconut chili garlic crisp,

that's what it is.

First off we're gonna prep the greens.

So I'm just gonna remove the greens off.

We are gonna be using the stems, the stalks.

Swiss chard stems are really delicious,

I actually think I like them

a little bit more than the leaves themselves.

So we have our greens, I'm just going to,

you could coarsely chop them,

I'm just gonna tear them into

a little bit bigger than my palm.

Torn is very, it's the way to go,

it's like, I don't really care,

I'm just gonna tear them.

But I really do care.

I'm gonna chop, oop.

Sorry.

It's very long.

I'm gonna chop the Swiss chard stalks.

[stalks crunching]

There you go, it's been a minute.

Okay so, we have our Swiss chard stalks.

I'm gonna take the shallot, just a medium shallot,

trim the little hairs at the end, peel that.

So, the person behind me

who's speaking to Chris Morocco, is Liesl Davis.

She's our recipe editor.

She is very much loved in all of BA,

but very much in The Test Kitchen.

She's the one who edits our recipes for print,

and everybody in the Test Kitchen

really loves her, that's all.

And I just thought you guys should know who she is.

We got some shallots here,

I am just gonna cut these into thin rounds.

These are gonna go with the stalks.

And then, I have a big piece of ginger here,

I'm just going to thinly slice them, lengthwise.

I like eating ginger just on its own,

it'll saute and soften,

the heat from the ginger will soften

from the fat of the salmon

and the olive oil that's going.

But no need to peel this time around.

I just give it a little trim here and then...

We have our aromatics, the ginger and shallots,

that are gonna be cooked with the Swiss chard stalks.

I am going to heat, let's say about

two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

to go over here.

We're on medium high, I'm just going to get my other things.

I just brought back the shallots,

the ginger, and the Swiss chard stems

that have been finely chopped.

The oil is glossy, slides around the skillet.

We could just dump this all at once.

We're gonna let this go,

and what were going for is really just softening

the Swiss chard stems and the shallots,

we're not looking to get any color on them.

So our shallots are pretty soft.

I'm gonna add a bit of salt to this.

So I'm gonna add the greens in batches,

otherwise we're gonna crowd the pan a little too much.

So as soon as I see the Swiss chard greens begin to wilt,

they don't need to completely wilt,

just half way, I'll add the rest.

I'm just adding the remaining greens.

I'm gonna remove this off heat.

I will say that the chard

is not completely tender yet,

but it's gonna continue cooking in the oven.

So what I'm gonna do is just

give it a stir, create a bed over here,

and then what we have here is

a center cut, really beautiful piece of salmon

and I just take this, skin on,

and I just lay it flat like this, clean hand.

Still clean hand, still clean hand.

And then season the salmon with salt.

You could have one big piece like this

or you could have filets,

like four filets, however many people you're cooking for.

But I just do one big piece

and then I break it up in big shards or pieces

for individuals, I just find it a little bit easier.

[Cameraman] Is that comfortable for you?

It's not comfortable at all, which is why I'm--

so we have our salmon on our bed of greens,

I am just going to mix in

half teaspoon of ground tumeric

into two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil.

This is going to stain the fish,

it's going to bring that sweet nuttiness

from the tumeric to the whole dish,

to the salmon and to the greens.

You'll see that beautiful color, that golden hue,

that really deep golden hue.

And then I'm just going to

drizzle it over the fish like this

and then give a little love to the greens.

And then I'm just gonna pop this in the oven.

300 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes.

Chilis and coconut are definitely

a pairing that's classic.

Next I'm gonna be making the coconut chili crisp.

This I will say, even if you

don't like fish, if you don't like salmon,

this condiment is just so downright addictive

and I would use it on soup, stew,

it adds this sweet, crunchy,

really spicy, garlicky topping

to whatever it hits and touches.

First off I'm going to peel three cloves of garlic.

Sometimes when the garlic's really good,

the paper will adhere to the cloves really well.

But that's okay, you want garlic to be almost sticky.

Like if your fingers are all sticky

after you've peeled garlic, that's a good sign.

What I'm gonna do over here,

is I'm gonna use my trusty mandolin.

I'm just gonna go crosswise.

I'm gonna take a serrano chili,

you could use jalapeno, you could use a red chili,

it really doesn't matter.

I think it obviously depends on your heat tolerance.

I'm gonna use actually half of this.

And go into kind of thin rounds.

The one thing I always look out for any fresh chili,

is that the seeds should be kind of off-white.

If they are brown, then I know that

one, they're probably gonna be a little less spicy,

the chili is old, for that matter,

so I don't even wanna use it,

and it will probably have a bitter taste to it,

the seed and a bit of the flesh.

I'll try a little bit of this,

but this looks like a good chili to me.

The green is bright,

and I actually just let this kiss my tongue,

and it's already very hot.

So this is probably gonna be a,

a pretty hot chili crisp.

We have our garlic, we have our chili,

and we have coconut.

So over here we're using unsweetened coconut flakes.

I like the coconut flakes

because they're big, they're kind of graphic-y pieces,

visually they're really nice on top of the fish

and they toast up nicely.

But you could also use shredded coconut,

you could use grated coconut.

just make sure that it's unsweetened,

you don't want additional sugar

in the coconut chili crisp.

You just want the natural sweetness

from the coconut itself.

Okay, I'm gonna take my skillet,

my coconut, garlic, chili,

some oil, some salt.

[Cameraman] You're gonna use all that salt?

All of it.

You need two cups' worth of salt.

[mimics gagging]

This is a Molly Baz recipe.

[laughs] [cameraman exclaims]

Sorry, sorry.

[whines]

I'm gonna add a tablespoon of oil,

medium heat on this, just because medium high

everything can happen a little bit too quickly.

And then everything kind of happens all at once.

I'm going to add the garlic, chilis and coconut

to the pan once the oil is a little bit hot

and easily slides around the skillet.

Okay that feels hot enough.

It's okay if it doesn't sizzle right away,

if anything when you're making garlic chips,

it's better to start the oil

where it's not too too hot.

So right away you smell

the fiery heat from the chilis, garlicky,

and that kind of sweet aroma from the coconut.

This is not something you wanna walk away from.

You definitely wanna be continuing to stir.

And you can see the garlic and the coconut's

already getting golden brown.

Okay, gonna take this off heat.

Gonna season this with a little bit of salt, yum.

Okay. [Cameraman giggles]

Let's check on our salmon.

That feels pretty good.

You see how the greens have darkened

and they've wilted completely?

The ginger has almost cupped up, shriveled a little bit.

The salmon, let's see.

I'll do with a cake tester,

I go in the thickest part,

this is a very restaurant-y, chef-y thing.

Let it go for a few seconds, five seconds.

I just let it touch my lip.

It should be definitely warm to the touch.

Not necessarily very very hot

where I take the cake tester away from my lips,

then it's probably overdone.

The second indication is that

I would look to see if it flakes easily,

and it definitely does.

So I'm gonna go from there, I'm gonna plate.

I'm gonna try to go for the greens first.

And I mean, this would be delicious just like this.

But I like the crunchy topping

that is the coconut chili crisp.

Maybe a pop of green from the chilis.

You also get this beautifully tumeric stained oil.

We'll got a little bit there.

Okay I'm gonna eat this.

We have our lovely dish of salmon and greens.

Let me give this a try.

See it flakes so easily.

The salmon's very subtle, but you still...

What?

What?

On our work phones,

if someone calls you, it goes to me.

I don't know how you set that up, but.

It's very annoying.

I find salmon to be very strong in flavor

compared to a white fish, so,

because of the amount of fat it has,

I don't necessarily do too much of the salmon.

And that's why the tumeric is still

very subtle and allows the salmon flavor to come through.

And then the tumeric oil stains the greens

and the greens get even more tender.

Still tender, has a little bit of bite to them.

I'm gonna try one of these ginger pieces.

You have to try it.

It still has that spice,

that heat that ginger has,

but it's a little more mellow

because of the fat from the olive oil

and the fat from the salmon.

This is just one of the 10 recipes

from the Feel Good Food Plan,

check it out in our January-February issue or online

and make it and let me know your thoughts.

Rob was looking real, [clicks tongue] GQ over here.

[Cameraman] No show socks.

Come on, guys, it's cold.