Filipino Barbecue Salmon with Cucumber-Tomato Salad
Khela really enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. She is an active member in several cooking groups, and her love language is most definitely food.
Filipino Barbecue Salmon is a spin on a Filipino classic banana sauce, also known as banana ketchup. I fell in love with banana sauce several years ago when I was researching recipes for a Filipino themed dinner party. I’m a traitor to my home of Kansas City because I don’t care for most American barbecue sauces, especially Kansas City style. I developed my own spin on the Filipino classic and have used it on both chicken and ribs, so thought “why not give it a whirl with salmon?” I only wish I had tried this sooner. This sweet and nuanced sauce is perfect with salmon. Because the sauce is a little on the sweeter side, I like to pair it with a salad with an acidic dressing. I did a play on a traditional Filipino tomato and cucumber salad that did the trick.
For this recipe I used fresh Mowi Atlantic salmon fillets, which were tender and moist, ideal for grilling.
Ingredients
For the salmon:
- 568 grams (20 ounces) fresh salmon filets
- 114 ml (1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons) banana ketchup
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) cola*
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, microplaned or minced
- Juice of 1/2 Lime
- 1 teaspoon oyster sauce
- Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- Chopped chives or scallion to garnish, optional
For the cucmber-tomato salad:
- 1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
- 170-227 grams (1 to 1 1/2 cups) grape, cherry, or other small variety of tomato, sliced in half
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- Half a medium onion, thinly sliced
- Half a medium red, yellow, or orange bell pepper sliced in thin strips
- 1 clove garlic, microplaned or minced
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
*I use Coca-Cola
Preparation
Mix marinade ingredients together well until sugar dissolves (omitting the 3 TBL of Banana Ketchup). Add salmon to 2/3rds of the marinade. Marinate in a bag for 20-45 minutes. Mix the 3 tablespoons of Banana Ketchup to the remaining marinade and set aside for glaze. Arrange the salmon filets on a small sheet pan and brush on glaze. Bake at 300 degrees until cooked to roughly10 degrees less than desired doneness. It is usually somewhere between 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness. I cook mine until it reaches 12. Then finish by broiling until the tops caramelize and they reach your desired doneness. Take them out rest for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with chives or green onions. Serve with your favorite salad or veggie side, and rice or cauliflower rice.
To make the salad, put sliced onion in ice water for 5-10 minutes. Combine fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sugar, cilantro, garlic, and black pepper. In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet bell pepper, and drained red onion. Add the dressing no sooner than an hour before serving.
Khela Brewer
Khela really enjoys experimenting in the kitchen. She is an active member in several cooking groups, and her love language is most definitely food. Feeding people is not just her hobby, it’s her lifestyle. She has always loved to cook, and her life pivoted when she happened into a local Facebook foodie group. She was exposed to others that shared the same passion for food and cocktails, met local chefs, and got the opportunity to compete in cooking competitions. Starting in 2018, she drastically changed the style of her cooking. Her new skills and her weight loss journey resulted in lessons to balance macros in such a way that flavor and variety were retained while focusing on health and nutrition.
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