Chef John's Salmon Recipe

The Salmon Aji Seco (Behind the Ceviche :))

When I was visiting Brian in Santiago, we ate at El Aji Seco Mistico for lunch and fell in love with the Salmon Aji Seco. As the same implies, the dish features salmon as the star of a seafood medley that was smothered in a really delicious yellow sauce. We inevitably got a little bit salmon crazy and scoured the internet in the hopes that we would find out exactly what was in that sauce. Although neither Brian nor I had found the right sauce, he suggested that we make at least a variation of it for our first cooking date post-Chile. :)

Seasoned and ready to go!

Brian chose a recipe from Chef John, who also happened to be the source for our paella recipe. The recipe was for two servings, so I basically needed half a salmon to feed the entire family. Hahaha! They sold them already packaged in an open chest freezer; however, they didn't look too fresh, so I went to the fish counter instead. When I got home, we logged on and began cooking...

Not the best looking but DEFINITELY tasty! 

This recipe can cleanly be cut into two parts, one part being the preparation of the sauce, and the other being the seasoning of the salmon. As I was using dry seasoning, Brian gave me the really good tip of scaling down my use of terragon and parsley, and as you can see, a tablespoon of the two spices was more than enough!

We had to make a paste with the spices and the garlic and mixed it with the mustard, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and a whole lot of mayo. Then we used the final mixture to coat the salmon, which was previously seasoned with kosher salt and olive oil, and popped the tray into the oven.

The most baffling thing about this recipe was that the salmon only needed 9+ minutes in the oven, and then it was done. It was perplexing to say the least, but that was really all it needed. And it turned out to be DELICIOUS! The salmon was cooked perfectly; the sauce was on point; and the seasoning on the salmon--which was only kosher salt, I know--was a welcome break amidst all of that sauce. This salmon dish ranks high in Brian's and my tried-and-tested list of recipes. :) I did realize that my cuts were too big: One piece was enough to fill you up! Thankfully, that also meant that we could have some leftovers for dinner. We will definitely be making this again. :) No doubt!