hwoo.lee
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December 17, 2025
This recipe is essentially a copy of an ocean trout dish that I got to serve while I staged at @katorestaurant in 2019. I was blown away, I never thought to serve poached fish like this - it was warm, delicate, buttery.
In 2020, when I was a wee-little amateur cook running dinners for @maru.losangeles, I spent a while trying to figure out how they made this. Eventually, I came up with this salmon dish. Even though I knew it wasn’t the exact same recipe as Kato’s, I was proud. It signified the baby steps of learning how to reverse-engineer a recipe - from tasting it, breaking it down conceptually, and to eventually recreating it. The salmon dish was quite the attention grabber, it delivered on classic Taiwanese flavors, and most importantly - guests loved it. And now, I hope you do too :)
In order to mimic that texture, you can sous vide salmon at around 40 °C for about 20 min. If you don’t have a sous vide circulator, you can poach the salmon on the stove, submerged in olive oil, for about 20-30 min on med-low heat (keep in mind, I've never tested this method myself). And if you don’t like rare salmon, cook it to your desired doneness.
As for the skin, it’s important to descale and scrap off any excess fat and meat. if you don’t, it’ll slow down the dehydration process and the skin won’t puff up when fried. if you don’t have a dehydrator - use your oven on it’s lowest temperature setting and set the skin on a wire rack. this may take anywhere from 4-8hrs.
Remove the skin from the filet (1) and set aside for the chip.
Combine salt (50 g), sugar (50 g), and MSG (12 g) (in a 1:1:¼ ratio) and cover the salmon in this brine. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
Remove the salmon and rinse with clean cold water, then pat dry. Season with salt and white pepper, then place in a sous vide bag with enough olive oil to submerge the fish.
Set your sous vide circulator to 41 °C and cook the salmon for 20 minutes.
Take the skin you removed earlier and scrape off any excess scales and meat with a flat metal spatula.
Place the skin in a dehydrator at 54 °C until it's dry like a chip or piece of plastic—this takes about 8 hours.
Or place it in your oven on the lowest setting for anywhere from 4-8 hours until completely dried out
Heat frying oil to 218 °C and drop the dehydrated salmon skin into the oil. This happens quickly - in about 10 seconds - so once it puffs up, remove it immediately. Use tongs or a spatula to flatten the skin out while it's still warm, then season with salt.
Heat neutral oil (2 Tbsp) in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the ginger (4 Tbsp), then the shallot (1), and finally the garlic (4 cloves) about 1 minute later.
Garlic burns quickly, so it goes in last
Once everything is lightly browned, add the brown sugar (73 g) and let it reduce down until a liquid forms.
Add the shaoxing wine (2 Tbsp) and cook until the alcohol evaporates.
Add the black vinegar (59 mL) and soy sauce (59 mL), stirring to combine. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes to let the flavors infuse, then strain out the solids. Optionally, add chicken jus to fortify the sauce, or thicken it with a cornstarch slurry.
Place the Japanese eggplants (2) directly over your gas burner flame. Completely char the outside—literally burn the outside (but don't set it on fire).
Once it's completely charred all around, place it into a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let it steam on its own for about 10 minutes.
Remove the charred skin—a few bits of char are fine. Mince the flesh finely, then season to taste with salt, pepper, and yondu.
Use a coupe or shallow bowl to serve. Place a dollop of the smoky eggplant purée on the bottom, drizzle with any chili oil you have, add a spoonful of the black vinegar sauce, top with the salmon filet, and finally garnish with your salmon skin chip.
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