This wine poached salmon and saffron rice recipe all started with a saffron purchase! I was perusing through Costco in the spice section. Vaguely looking for coconut oil or one of those baking ingredients that's best bought in bulk. When I came across saffron.
Now, I've never actually cooked with saffron. To the best of my knowledge, I've never even eaten saffron. But those types of things pique my interest!
I like to cook with new and interesting ingredients. After all, there must be so many absolutely delicious things out there in the world that we just haven't tried yet! I do this all of the time when watching cooking shows or when a new hit restaurant ends up in international news. I'm instantly drooling over whatever new and innovative dish that they've managed to come up with or that's been carefully cultivated and passed down through generations. And oh how much I wish that I could try it!
So, when I find an ingredient for something that I've never tried before and think that I might be missing out, I jump at the opportunity to find out! This week, saffron was that ingredient. After much contemplation and searching through recipes, I decided on wine poached salmon with saffron rice.
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Variations of Poached Salmon and Saffron Rice
Since this is the first time that I've ever tried to poach salmon! I don't have a multitude of recipes to go along with it. However, I do often tend to cook salmon. Growing up in Oregon, where Alaskan salmon is incredibly prevalent, I ate salmon all of the time. Grilled on the barbecue. Tossed into salads. Cooked on top of pizza. You name it, my family put salmon on it! And now I still can't get enough off it and have various other recipes that you can utilize it in.
What could be more decadent than wine poached salmon and saffron rice? This Mediterranean-inspired dish combines white wine poached salmon with tomatoes, kalamata olives, carrots, and garlic with saffron rice infused with turmeric, red onions, garlic, habaneros, olive oil, cumin, and smoked paprika.
I used Fresh Turmeric in Olive Oil. You can easily substitute dried turmeric. But there is something particularly refreshing about fresh turmeric! And, if you can find it, mincing it and preserving in olive oil is the key to longevity.
Add all of the ingredients into a rice cooker. I like to start with the larger vegetables and then add the smaller ingredients. Top with the spices. Then, add the rice and water.
Press the cook button on the rice cooker. It should take about 45 minutes to cook.
When the rice is fully cooked, let sit for 10 minutes, and then fluff with a wooden spoon and serve.Do not use a fork or other metal utensil. It will scratch off the nonstick surface on the rice cooker. This will leach teflon into your food and cause future dishes to stick to the bottom!
Poach Salmon
Remove salmon from the refrigerator and let reach room temperature.
Meanwhile, add tomatoes, carrot, garlic, salt, and pepper to a food processor. Purée until smooth. This should take about 30-60 seconds.
Add tomato purée, wine, lemon slices, kalamata olives, and saffron to a large pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.
As the sauce is coming to a simmer, cut the salmon fillet into 4 equal-sized pieces.
Once the sauce is at a simmer, add salmon to the pot. Make sure that it's fully covered. If the salmon is peaking through the sauce, add more wine until it's at least covered by 1/4 inch.
Simmer covered for 10-15 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked throughout.I usually cook salmon based on color. However, when poached the color isn't as clear an indicator! Salmon should flake with a fork when it's done and will have a lighter hue as it changes from translucent red to an opaque pink with white veins of fat seeping through. However, when poached in wine and tomatoes, it's less clear based on the color that the salmon is done! You're likely going to want to cut into it to see if it flakes, whether the inside is cooked, and/or reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove salmon from the pot and let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Once the salmon was cooked, I also simmered down the sauce for another 10 minutes just to cook out more of the wine and reduce it further.This is optional, but feel free to further simmer down if you want! I didn't want quite that much extra sauce and cooking it down will also cook out more of the alcohol, if you want a less boozy consistency.
Prepare Salad
Spread about 1/2 cup saffron rice across a plate.
Top with salmon and spoon another 1/4 cup wine sauce.
Serve immediately.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
For more information on how to poach salmon, check out my recipe on Poached Salmon w/ Tomatoes & White Wine. I almost didn't separate these into two distinct articles. But there is some finesse to poaching fish and I thought that it maybe warranted a little bit more detail if you so choose!
I also have a more in-depth article on how to make Brown Rice w/ Saffron & Habaneros. As well as tips and tricks on The Fundamentals of Cooking Rice. There are some easy pitfalls to avoid. Particularly when cooking brown rice, which has a tendency to be difficult to navigate without drying out.
For more information about saffron, including the flavor profile and addressing its scarcity, I have an entire article on The Fundamentals of Saffron.
This dish also does remarkably well reheated throughout the week or even served chilled in a salad. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this with all fish or really most seafood... But salmon is an oily fish that preserves well. If you cook with lemon, it will absorb more of the citrus flavor while resting. This adds a nice flavor that intensifies over time. Plus. both lemon and olive oil are natural preservatives and increase the lifespan of the dish.
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