Date Night Meals: Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce

I've pinned a few recipes for Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce on Pinterest and I've been meaning to make it for quite a while now.  I finally got around to pulling up the recipe the other day and I noticed something- sweetened condensed milk.

Ugh.  Don't get me wrong, I certainly cook desserts with it from time to time, but WHY?  Why on God's green Earth would you choose to adulterate a delicious piece of salmon with condensed milk of all things?

Just no.

I thought for sure this was just a one-off fluke recipe, so I started googling...over and over again I saw sweetened condensed milk on the ingredient list for sriracha cream sauce!

Until I found this post from So Tasty, So Yummy- she shared in my belief that salmon just doesn't need much extra sweetness added to it.  She limited the seasoning of the fish itself to olive oil, salt, and pepper and made a simple sauce with mayo, soy sauce, lime juice, and sriracha.

Personally, I love salmon just about any way it's prepared, but I rarely leave a recipe the way I've found it and decided to add a marinade (I've included my recipe at the bottom of the post) and play with the sauce a little.

I'm also pretty picky about the doneness of my salmon- I'll go ahead and let you know that the USDA says to heat fish to an internal temp of 145 degrees F and that a general rule of thumb is to cook the salmon until it starts to flake when you stick a fork in it. 

Me?  I'll just say that personally I prefer to pull the fish from the heat source when it's internal temp is in the 125 degree F range- when the fish is warm and cooked inside but not overcooked and chewy.  But hey, that's just me...

Anyway, this fish turned out FABULOUSLY- definitely one I'll be repeating.  Check out the recipe below or save it to your recipe box at Allrecipes.com!

Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce

8 oz salmon

2 Tbsp olive oil

For Marinade:

1/4 C olive oil

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp sriracha

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp ginger

For Sauce:

2 Tbsp mayo

2 tsp sriracha

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 tsp rice vinegar

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp sesame oil

1. Mix together all marinade ingredients.  Place salmon in dish or zip-lock bag and cover with marinade.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.

2. Mix together all sauce ingredients and set aside.  Heat skillet over medium heat.  Add salmon filets, skin side down, and salt and pepper to taste.  Allow to cook for 4 minutes, then flip.  Cook for another 4 minutes or until desired doneness is reached.  Drizzle with sauce.