Fried Salmon Pockets Recipe

Umami-filled goodness!

Salmon is a great source of protein. It contains a significant amount of healthy saturated fats. It is rich in omega-3 and relatively healthy for one’s diet. Salmon is among the priciest and most luxurious fish varieties, and it wouldn’t be if it weren't for a reason.

Aside from all its health benefits, there are a lot of great ways to prepare and cook your salmon into one delicious, healthy meal. Matter of fact, if it’s of high quality, you can actually eat it raw.

The most common way to prepare salmon is pan-fried, just seasoned, and seared. Some people enjoy it baked or grilled. If you’ll notice, everything is just simple to prepare. But for today's recipe, we'll raise the bar a little higher than usual.

What is Fried Salmon Pockets

There are numerous variations of salmon pockets available online. You simply have to choose based on your preferences and the availability of certain ingredients.

But don't worry, with a dozen Asian stores on every corner and online, it's nearly impossible not to find these ingredients. All you need are some staples you typically use when making sushi.

So are you ready? Let’s get started!

How to Make Salmon Pockets

1. Prepare the salmon by patting it dry with paper towels. Slice the salmon into small diced pieces with a sharp knife.

2. In a separate bowl, combine the kewpie mayonnaise, sriracha, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Mix them all together until well combined.

3. Then gently toss in the diced salmon and mix everything together. Set it aside to allow the salmon to absorb all of the flavors.

4. Meanwhile, season the white rice with mirin and a little salt and pepper. Mix it using a spatula. Place it aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

5. In a bowl full of water, submerge the rice paper until it becomes translucent and a bit sticky. Once that’s done, place the rice paper on a flat surface.

6. Place a sheet of nori in the center of the rice paper, followed by the rice, the salmon mixture, and another sheet of nori.

7. Wrap the entire thing in rice paper until it forms a rectangular shape. Apply the same procedure to the remaining portion of your mixture.

8. Add some neutral oil to a nonstick pan over medium heat and fry the salmon pockets until golden brown on both sides.

9. Once golden and crispy, remove it from the heat and drain excess oil using paper towels.

10.Serve and enjoy!

Tools

●     In frying your salmon pockets, you can use a deep nonstick pan. Something deep enough that you can add more oil for deep frying.

●     Alternatively, you can use a deep fryer if you have one at home.

●     Again, it is very important to use a very sharp, clean knife when slicing your fish to prevent it from breaking apart.

●     Use a clean cutting board dedicated to seafood as it will give you a fishy smell.

Notes

●     Rice papers can be bought in Asian stores or online, but if you are having a hard time finding one, you can use a spring roll wrapper or a wonton wrapper instead. But keep in mind that, in any case, you will be using a wonton wrapper, and the size will be too small to wrap the mixture around. So, rather than wrapping it, you might need to use 2 wonton wrappers on top of each other and adjust the amount of filling you will put in each salmon pocket.

●     To give it a fresh and aromatic feel, you can add chopped parsley or fresh dill to your salmon mixture.

●     Though Sriracha will not be as spicy when added to mayo, you can remove it entirely from the recipe if you are not comfortable eating spicy food.

●     Also, cream cheese is a good addition to this recipe as it will give you extra creaminess and a tangy flavor that goes perfectly with salmon.

●     I know you are wondering what to do if you don’t have mirin at home or you don’t want to buy one. Yes, you can replace it with any vinegar you have, whether white or apple cider vinegar and follow the ratio below:

*For every teaspoon of mirin, combine 1 teaspoon of white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. I like to cook it in a small saucepan over very low heat until it bubbles and the sugar dissolves completely.

●     You can eat these fried salmon pockets as it is but you may want to make a sriracha-mayo or sesame oil-soy sauce for a dip.