Steamed King Salmon with Basil Sauce

This is restaurant plating brought home. Thin strips of king salmon get wrapped around fresh spinach leaves, steamed for just two minutes, then arranged over a pool of bright basil sauce with crisp Belgian endive spears and glistening salmon caviar.

Two minutes in the steamer is all the salmon needs. The strips are thin enough that they cook through quickly while staying silky and moist inside. Oversteaming turns salmon chalky and dry, so watch the clock closely.

The spinach leaf tucked inside each fold isn’t just decoration. It wilts into the salmon and adds a subtle green, earthy flavor that connects to the basil sauce underneath.

Chef Tips

• Slice the salmon on a sharp diagonal to get strips that are wide enough to fold over. Keep them uniform in size so they cook evenly
• The salmon should be just barely opaque at the center when it comes out. It carries over for another 30 seconds from residual heat
• Warm the basil sauce gently before plating. Cold sauce against hot fish dulls both flavors
• Arrange with intention: three salmon pieces and three endive spears per plate, caviar on top at the very end so the pearls stay intact

Variations

• Swap the fish: Steelhead trout or arctic char work beautifully with the same basil sauce and cooking time
• Pesto shortcut: If you don’t have basil sauce on hand, a loosened-up pesto thinned with olive oil and lemon juice makes a quick substitute
• Skip the caviar: A few thin lemon slices or microgreens give a clean finish if caviar isn’t in the budget