Garam Masala Seared Salmon with Coconut-Curry Butter

  4.3 – 40 reviews  • Indian

Here’s a fresh approach to adding South Indian spices. While they are in season, try to find fresh wild king or Copper River salmon. Use whatever is most recently available; fresh sockeye would also be suitable.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 35 mins
Servings: 8
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  1. ¾ cup dry white wine
  2. ½ cup heavy cream
  3. ⅓ cup coconut milk
  4. 2 tablespoons curry powder
  5. 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  6. kosher salt to taste
  7. ¼ cup vegetable oil
  8. 8 (6 ounce) fillets Alaskan king salmon
  9. 2 tablespoons garam masala
  10. kosher salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Pour white wine, cream, and coconut milk into a saucepan; season with curry powder. Bring to a light boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the liquid has reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes.
  2. When the liquid has reduced, turn heat to low, and whisk in the butter, a few cubes at a time, until all of the butter has incorporated. Do not allow the mixture to boil or else it will separate. When the butter has incorporated, season to taste with salt and set aside to keep warm.
  3. Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke. While the oil is heating, lightly season both sides of the salmon with garam masala and salt.
  4. Sear the salmon in the hot oil for 3 to 4 minutes on one side, then turn over, and continue cooking for 2 to 3 minutes until done. Briefly drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil, then serve immediately with the curry butter sauce.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 605 kcal
Carbohydrate 3 g
Cholesterol 156 mg
Dietary Fiber 1 g
Protein 37 g
Saturated Fat 23 g
Sodium 486 mg
Sugars 0 g
Fat 48 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Marvin Wilson
LIke several others, I found this highly meh and bland. The flavor combinations just didn’t work.
Amanda Melendez
I will make this again! My hubby Loved it! I didn’t use the white as allergic to sulfite used chicken stock and decreased amount of salt also. Marinated for 2hours with the rub on it. Instead of a grill, I. Put in foil packet with extra lemons sliced. Made mashed potatoes and broccoli as sides.
Judith Castro
What a unique and flavorful dish. A few pointers from me: For those of you who reduced or eliminated the butter, a beurre blanc is a butter sauce. It’s supposed to be buttery! If that’s not to your liking, maybe try another recipe. When seasoning your fish, check the ingredients in your garam masala first to see if there’s salt in there before seasoning to taste. I didn’t, and my fish was a little bit too salty. Also, since this makes a fair amount of sauce, serve this with rice to soak it up. And you can use the rest of the opened can of coconut milk for part of the cooking liquid for your rice, so you don’t wind up wasting it. Overall a great recipe!
Kimberly Morris
had to add 1.5 teaspoons of sugar – too salty for me despite using the unsalted butter and like some others, used 1/2 the butter
Deanna Foster
I was stunned. My family loved the fish. My older two children (aged 6 and 4) don’t really like food with sauce so they didn’t have any but my husband loved the sauce. I made it with low fat coconut milk and just a little heavy cream and less butter than the recipe called for but I kept the amount of white wine the same. I did use delicious dry white wine which I also enjoyed drinking with the meal. My children (aged 6, 4 and 2) ate all of the fish and couldn’t stop telling me how good it was. It was also something different made with real spices but it was not peppery as my children don’t like hot food. I made the garam masala from scratch from the allrecipes recipe omitting the black pepper which didn’t take any time at all. I should also add that I used salmon that I had bought fresh but kept frozen in the deep freezer. I defrosted it while marinating in Shaw’s (national groacery store brand) lemon and garlic marinade (a knock of Ken’s) along with the juice of half a lemon prior to cooking along with a little kosher salt. I also squeezed the last bit of the half of lemon’s juice over the fish as I was cooking it. This dish was ready in 30-45 mins on a day when we arrived home late. The sauce also looks much better than in the picture. My children have already asked me to make this again.
Kathryn Smith
Made this recipe as written…absolutely yummy. Did garnish with fresh cilantro but that isn’t changing the recipe.
Grace Morales
It turned out to be wonderful! My husband says he is looking forward to it again soon since I made a whole batch of sauce and only two portions of salmon.
Colton Romero
Really good. I used just coconut milk, cut butter in half, and served on tilapia.
Heather Durham DDS
Very good. Everyone like it, no one raved. Might make again. I would not make this with Salmon again…not good enough to justify the cost. There are much better salmon recipes out there. This may be good with another fish or chicken.
Vicki Campbell
The seasoned salmon was delicious. I had to remind myself that this is not a sauce, but a flavored butter. As such, it is good, although a bit flat in flavor, and it is so buttery that I had to use it sparingly. I will try to make a sauce of it, as others suggested, by reducing the amount of butter, increasing the coconut milk, and perhaps adding some yoghurt. It is good idea for an Indian-type curry sauce that is quick, easy and versatile.
Lindsey Collins
I substituted shrimp instead of salmon we all really liked it…I’m making it again in a couple weeks=)
Jeffrey King
The idea of this sounded so good, but none of us were very impressed with this, we didn’t think it was worth the work or expensive ingredients. It was just disappointing for us.
Kelly Singleton
This was very nice! I just couldn’t bring myself to use an entire cup of butter, I used less than half and a full can of lite coconut milk (no cream). I ended up having to add a little cornstarch but it worked out just fine.
Ruth Norman
I was a little disapppointed in this recipe. I loved the idea, but it didn’t exactly work out as planned. I did enjoy the garam masala with the salmon – that part was delicious. But the butter sauce was not good… perhaps my choice of white wine was not good, but that’s all I could taste, and it overwhelmed any butter or coconut milk flavor. I was only able to save the sauce by using a couple teaspoons of white sugar. After that, we enjoyed it on the salmon, but I’m not sure we’ll make this again. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to use garam masala, though!
Theresa Johnson
Best salmon I’ve ever had, I had no white wine though so I substituted with a mixture of apple juice and rice wine vinegar… turned out fantastic!!! Absolutely love this recipe 😀
Amanda Harris
This was very good. I substituted the cup of butter for natural yogurt and I also added a little brown sugar. I mixed the garam masala with wholewheat flour for a crispy crust to the salmon. Thanks, will make again
Mark Wells
LOVED IT! Have shared the recipe (and my jar of Garam Masala) with a dear friend. Had it with rice and steamed broccoli. Delicious and different. Thanks Ryan!
Jose Hernandez
Yum! This tasted great; I loved it!
Ashley Cordova
I used Rainbow Trout instead of Salmon, and baked the Trout instead of searing it. But when i baked it, i forgot to rub it with garam masala. The sauce is really good, however, it took me about 20 min to reduce it. I also had to use some sugar and salt to add a bit of taste to the sauce. It was really great on the fish. We loved it.
Ashley Miller
I have made this recipe two times now, for the first time I followed it almost exactly, for the second time I made it with modifications and found it great. I would like to say, if you are looking for an authentic Indian recipe, this is not this. This is a good fusion recipe using Indian ingredients and French technique. My modifications: 1/2 cup coconut milk and 1/3 cup cream for more coconut flavor, I found the coconut flavor a little subtle with 1/3 cup. And I used just 1/3 cup butter and it was enough. 1 cup butter makes the sauce very fatty. The butter makes the sauce thick, but if you serve the sauce hot, the butter melts and the sauce won`t be thick both with 1 and 1/3 cup. So I found no much difference how many butter you use. Overall, this is a good recipe with very interesting flavor.
Debra Mckinney
I loved this recipe! Instead of using salmon, I used chicken. I only used 1 tablespoon of garam masala on the chicken. It looked like 2 tbs would be too much. I also used salted butter rather than unsalted butter. I ate mine with just regular frozen green peas and on rice. I think next time, a nice yogurt drink would taste great w/ it and would make this recipe PERFECT!

 

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