Salmon Teriyaki with Baked Sushi Rice
Serves: 2-4
Serving Suggestions: Garlic-fried asparagus or sautéed mushrooms
For Salmon:
2 Salmon Steaks (about 500g)
4 tbsp Soy Sauce
2tbsp Sweet Mirin “Wei Lin”
2tbsp Mirin/Rice Wine
2tsp Maple Syrup
1 thumb of Ginger
2-3 Garlic Gloves
1tsp Olive or any other oil.
Pinch of Sesame Seeds (optional)
For Rice:
1 cup Sushi Rice
2 cups Water
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 tbsp Sake/White Wine Vinegar
2tbsp Sweet Mirin “Wei Lin”
20g Butter
Salmon Teriyaki
1. Prepare the teriyaki marinade by combining soy sauce, sweet and normal mirin and maple syrup.
2. Slice both garlic and ginger. In a container, large enough to fit both salmon steaks, lay out half of ginger and garlic then pour in ¼ of marinade and place the salmon on top. Then cover the salmon with the remining ginger and garlic and pour in the rest of the marinade. Leave in the fridge for min 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.
*Note: Depending on the size of your container, you might not have enough marinade to cover salmon completely. In that case, just make some more marinade and you will have more delicious glaze to go with your meal later.
3. Remove salmon steaks from the marinade and reserve the marinade discarding all of garlic and ginger.
*Note: If you are also making rice, you should put it in the oven right before starting this step.
4. On high heat, warm up a frying pan with a few drops of oil. Once it is hot enough place the salmon skin down in the pan for 5-10 seconds and then take it back out placing skin-side up on the chopping board. Using kitchen tongs peel the skin off the salmon, it should come off easily. Reserve the skin.
5. Reduce heat to medium and once again place salmon skin-side down in the pan. Place the skin next to it and cook both steaks and skin for 2 minutes, flipping the skin half way through.
6. Take the salmon skin out and pour the reserved marinade in to the pan. Continue cooking salmon in marinade for further 2-3 minutes. Then, flip the salmon and cook the other side for 4-5 minutes.
7. Take out the salmon and place it on top of rice sprinkle on some sesame seeds and pour out the remaining glaze (marinade) on top.
8. Use the crispy salmon skins for garnish.
Baked Rice:
1. Wash rice 6-7 times in cold water until water starts running clear. Leave it to soak for 10-20 minutes.
2. Heat up your oven to 180C.
3. Make rice seasoning by combining: the two vinegars, mirin, sugar and ½ tsp of salt.
4. Boil 2 cups of water, add to it butter, 1 tbs of rice seasoning and the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt.
5. Drain the rice, spread it evenly in a medium baking tin, pour in the boiling water, cover tightly with tin foil and bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and split on warm plates.
Some After-Thought:
Salmon Teriyaki is something I have been trying to figure out for a few years now. There are many versions of this popular dish, each with distinctive marinade. Some use white miso to add extra saltiness and healthy B-vitamins, others add honey for sweetness, I have even seen people add sake or gin to the mix as alcohol helps better carry aromas and flavours due to its molecular bounding properties. All are interesting in their own way and I highly recommend that you try out a few and come up with your own chimeric creation. I personally discovered that “Wei Lin” (aka sweet mirin) is a good addition to the sauce mixture. You can find it in most Asian stores produced by “Kong Yen” brand, but in case you can’t don’t worry, it is not an essential, just add more sweetener such as maple syrup. And if you can’t find any rice wine at all, then use white wine. Sure, it is a western bastardisation, but the end result is miles from bad. The last thing to watch out for when making the marinade is the sodium content of your soy sauce, as both its saltiness and quality might vary depending on its brand. Therefore, it is very important to keep tasting your marinade when you are mixing the ingredients together no matter what you decide to put in it. The marinade should not taste too salty, but neither should it be too sweet, find the balance you like.
Also, you can not only fry Teriyaki salmon in a pan but also do it on grill. I will leave the latter option for another time since I believe it better suits a whole side of salmon than individual steaks. And of course, the cooking time might vary depending on the sickness and width of your cut.
Finally, when picking out your salmon steaks make sure that they are firm and thick (thicker than the once you get packaged at the supermarket) but watch out for the once too big since they tend to be very fatty and taste watery. If you find some wild sockeye, great! But, make sure to marinade a bit longer than usual as it is very firm, and add a splash of alcohol to the marinade, this will help the flavours better mix with its oils.