Chef Adam Liaw  demonstrates his cooking talent at Hotel de l'Opera Hanoi (Photo: Australian Embassy)

Chi: Welcome to VOV24/7’s Food Delight where you can find useful tips and recipes from renowned chefs. On today’s show, we’re delighted to welcome Adam Liaw, Master Chef Australia Winner 2010, who is also a well-known cook, writer and TV presenter in Australia and overseas. Adam was recently in Hanoi as part of his ASEAN tour.

Adam: Hi, my name’s Adam Liaw.

Chi: Hi Adam. As far as I know, your trip to ASEAN aims to promote Australia’s cuisine. What do you offer us this time?

Adam: There are typical kinds of dishes that Australians make. They are not classic, not the kind of dishes that every Australian knows how to make. That’s the style of cooking that Australians love.

Chi: What is the cooking style of Australians?

Adam: Australian food is simple, multicultural and focuses a lot on the quality of the ingredients. The food is a reflection of where and how the ingredients are sourced.

Chi: Adam Liaw’s approachable and family-friendly recipes are influenced by his global travels, but remains focused on the casual simplicity of modern Australian home cooking. On this trip to Hanoi, Adam brought with him some typical Australian ingredients. One of them is salmon.  Today, he’ll share with us some simple tips on how to make Smoked salmon with tarator sauce.

Adam: We eat a lot of salmon in Australia, and we produce excellent cold water salmon in Tasmania. The tarator sauce has a Middle Eastern origin, specifically Turkish and Lebanese, and is comprised of tahini and yoghurt. In Australia, we have a large Lebanese community.

Chi: Adam focuses on balancing different flavors in his dishes. How do you combine different ingredients to create a great balance?

Adam: The sauce is just really a mix of classic Middle Eastern ingredients: tahini is very very popular. Yoghurt, lemon juice and a little bit of honey, a simple sauce  balanced by the sour notes of the yoghurt and lemon juice together with the sweetness of the honey and the  slight bitterness of tahini with a little  salt . We use mint, coriander, and some chilli, as well as walnuts and Australian Macadamia nuts and some red onion.

Smoked salmon tarator (Photo: Australian Embassy)

Chi: How do you cook the salmon, the main ingredient of the dish?

Adam: Salmon is great in that it’s easy to prepare.  You can just simply pan-fry it. Get the pan quite hot, heat the oil and salt the salmon. You cook it mainly on one side, and then turn it. Don’t overcook salmon because it can get quite dry. Just slightly cook it until very tender.

Chi: Do we need to marinate the salmon for long?

Adam: Food is better when it’s simple. I quite often try to stay away from a lot of different spices.  It’s risky if you do not use spices correctly. Spices for me, are better for dishes that you cook for a long time, as there is time for the flavors to develop. For the dishes that you cook for a short period of time, simply add some salt. Salmon is delicious because all you get is that nice, natural taste.

Chi: How should I serve the tarator sauce in this dish?

Adam: To serve the salmon, you can put the sauce on top or underneath the salmon. I especially like salmon pan-fried and with a crispy skin, and keeping the sauce underneath the salmon is great for that.

Chi: So, we’ve learned some tips for a great salmon recipe with Australian chef Adam Liaw. Thanks Adam for joining us. Good bye for now.