Salmon with Asian Glaze

This salmon can be grilled or roasted in the oven.  You cook the glaze in a saucepan with shallots, hoisin, garlic ketchup, honey, sesame seeds, soy sauce, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sambal oelek.  Sambal oelek is a slightly chunky Southeast Asian chili sauce made from red chilie peppers, rice vinegar and can often have shrimp paste, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, shallot, palm sugar and lime juice for an even more flavorful sauce.  You can find sambal oelek in most grocery stores now and it is different from sriacha because it less acidic and adds a little more heat because the chilie pepper seeds are left in the condiment.   A little goes a long way!  Cook it all together for 5 minutes and you have the glaze which is full of flavor and a little kick of heat.  You can make the glaze several days before.  I like to cook the salmon on a piece of foil that has been scrunched all around the edges for easier cleanup.  Brush some of the glaze on the fish before you bbq or roast it and then heat the sauce back up and glaze it with the salmon when it is finished just before serving.  If you put too much glaze on the fish as it’s cooking it can burn.  I like to serve it with some Japanese rice and snap peas and keep the salmon the star of the show.  Click here for the recipe….