Sous Vide Salmon With Lime Butter

I love raw salmon – I don’t think there’s enough salmon sashimi in this world to sate me. And I love cured and smoked salmon – both the hot and cold smoked varieties… utterly gorgeous.

But although I’ve had lovely cooked salmon plenty of times, I’ve also been served some hideously overcooked salmon; so much so that I no longer order it when eating out. Salmon is a fish that doesn’t forgive overcooking and the gap between perfectly cooked and woaaah there, Nelly, you’ve turned it into a fishy rusk covered in unsightly streaks of white albumin seems to be about 5 seconds!

The advantage of sous vide cooking is that you can take a piece of salmon (or steak or an egg or whatever you like) up to the exact temperature that will change its texture to just cooked but leaving it in an extra few minutes won’t make a bit of difference. Heck, you could leave it in an extra 30 minutes and it’d be just fine. Click here to understand more about how sous vide works.

So sous vide salmon has been on my list to try at home for the longest time. (Yes, I know, I’ve had a sous vide machine for 18 months… what the heck took me so long? how the heck can I call myself a food blogger? blah blah blah…)

The texture is just gorgeous. Silky, silky soft with the gentle wobble of just-cooked fish – it’s a wonderful way to enjoy salmon!

Sous Vide Salmon with Lime Butter - Kavey Eats - (c) Kavita Favelle - 9040

What prompted me to finally give it a go was getting our Codlo, a super nifty space-saving device that turns your regular slow cooker or rice cooker into a sous vide water bath. Read my original review of the Codlo, here.

I’m genuinely an enormous fan of this device – we’ve enjoyed the results of our Sous Vide Supreme for over a year but struggled with storage, as it’s really quite large. The Codlo takes hardly any space, indeed it’s small enough that we can store it inside our slow cooker!

When we tested the two devices in a side by side comparison, we couldn’t tell any difference in the results, making Codlo a very viable alternative, not to mention significantly less expensive too.

codlo book 2[3]

The accompanying book, Codlo Sous-Vide Guide & Recipes written by Codlo creator Grace Lee, is packed with instructions about sous vide cooking techniques plus temperatures and times for different types of foods and lots of tempting recipes.

We followed Grace’s instructions for cooking salmon, but served it with a very simple lime butter instead of the parsley sauce suggested.

As the salmon needs a brief brine bath before cooking, start this recipe about an hour before you wish to serve.

Sous Vide Salmon with Lime Butter - Kavey Eats - (c) Kavita Favelle - 9035 Sous Vide Salmon with Lime Butter - Kavey Eats - (c) Kavita Favelle - 9038

Sous Vide Salmon With Lime Butter

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

For the brine:

  • 500 ml water
  • 50 g salt

For the salmon:

  • 2 fresh salmon fillets
  • 30 ml olive oil

For the butter:

  • 25 g unsalted butter
  • juice of half a lime

Vegetables:

  • As you prefer, we chose baby new potatoes and peas.

Notes

You will also need sealable bags in which to vacuum-pack the salmon. Use a vacuum sealing machine with specialist bags provided or food-safe ziplock bags and the water displacement method.

Instructions

  • Fill your slow cooker or rice cooker with water, plug in the Codlo, set the temperature to 50 °C (122 °F) and allow to come up to temperature.
  • In a large bowl dissolve the brine salt in the water. Place the salmon fillets in the brine solution so that they are completely submerged and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
  • Remove the salmon from the brine and place into your sous vide bag with the olive oil. Remove the air from the bag and seal securely.
  • Once your Codlo-controlled water bath is up to temperature, set the timer for 20 minutes and submerge your bagged salmon in the heated water.
  • Use these 20 minutes to cook your chosen vegetables and make the lime butter.
  • To make the lime butter, mix the lime juice into the softened butter; you might prefer to add half the juice first and taste before adding more, to balance the acidity to your taste.
  • Once the cooking time is up, remove the salmon from the water bath, open the bag and carefully slide the fillets onto plates. Be gentle as they are quite fragile once cooked.
  • Spoon lime butter over the fish (and the potatoes too, in our case).
  • Serve immediately.

Sous Vide Salmon with Lime Butter - Kavey Eats

Kavey Eats received a Codlo for review purposes. All opinions are genuine and 100% honest, as always.  Codlo is currently priced at £119, available here; given how much I love the product, I accepted an invitation to become an affiliate, please see blog sidebar for further information.

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21 Comments to "Sous Vide Salmon With Lime Butter"

  1. Gingey Bites

    Kavey, your posts always make me laugh, I love the way you write! This does look great and I’d never heard of this device.. maybe I need to get one to use with my slow cooker!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Aaw, thank you, always good to raise a smile! It’s a great device and if you already have a slow cooker or a rice cooker, it’s a far cheaper way to buy into sous vide…

    Reply
  2. Sarah

    I totally know what you mean! Over cooked salmon is just offensive. I’ve never tried making salmon this way before – I’ll have to give it a try because it sounds great!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    I loved it so much I could eat it several days in a row. Can’t wait to make it again!

    Reply
  3. kaveyeats

    Thanks Helen, this was so super simple. Happy to hear you love the Codlo too!

    Reply
  4. kaveyeats

    Thanks Nayna, yes it’s one of that gadgets that you wonder about getting but to me it’s worth it for the steaks alone!

    Reply
  5. Jen

    Overcooked salmon is just so wrong! Glad to hear that the Codlo is an easier and cheaper way of doing sous vide cooking at home. The salmon looks just perfect.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Thanks Jen, and glad I’m not alone in my aversion to overcooked salmon!

    Reply
  6. kaveyeats

    Thanks Debi. If you already have a show cooker or rice cooker, the codlo is a great way to do it!

    Reply
  7. kaveyeats

    Peter, it takes some getting used to I think, to use it well, but there are so many excellent guides on the internet, plus now I have some recipe guidance from the Codlo book, which helps too!

    Reply
  8. Alison

    I am loving the idea of the lime butter. I am addicted to limes and never thought of using them with butter. Your salmon looks delicious

    Reply

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