I have a beautiful piece of salmon for dinner tonight. Tell me about your favorite preparations. I’ve been doing two on heavy rotation here but looking to change it up.
I pulled this from the Milk Street magazine and only follow the idea now. Take your salmon and liberally apply kosher salt (original recipe calls for an herb mixed in with the salt, probably dill). Let the salted fish rest in the fridge 45-60 min. Rinse off, pat dry. Bake around 325 until internal temp gets to where you like it. 115-120 or so for us. Apply more herbs. So easy and delicious.
Combine a coarse, seedy mustard and brown sugar into a paste, sometimes a splash of vinegar if I remember. Cover the fish with the paste, bake at a 400-450, brown the top a little for some caramelization. My kid loves this one.
I tend to go as simple as possible with wild-caught salmon (when I used to buy wild-caught sockeye salmon from Seabear) and cook it low and slow JUST until it flakes, seasoning only with their coarse salt/pepper blend. Their instructions: "Pre-heat oven to 275°F. Place salmon fillet skin side down on a cookie sheet brushed with olive oil, and bake for approximately 20 minutes. Do not flip salmon fillet. "
But I always like a light glaze of maple syrup and whole grain or coarse mustard brushed over it as well. OR a glaze of sweet/spicy - maple syrup and Sriracha to taste.
I like to use almost the same recipe I use for seared chilean sea bass
It was posted on the 12/2018 what’s for dinner #40.
Bobby Flay’s recipe is almost similar. but I do not think he is using real (Aji Mirin) which makes a big difference as Aji mirin though sweet has no artificial sweetener His recipe calls for a1/4 cup of mirin. I like to use 4 years old aged mirin, the ones manufactured by ogasawara, When aji mirin is used, I use 1-2 tablespoon, just enough to offset the saltiness of the miso and give the fish a nice glaze. This aji mirin is not available in the US( as it contains 14% alcohol unless you can find it in a liquor store or buy sake and make your own aji mirin ) but can be purchased from The Japan Store, Well worth the effort. it is smooth so I was told and can be used as a liquor over rocks. It cost just about $10.00 plus fed Ex from Japan .I buy two bottles at a time, cost around $50 total with S/H . Japan Store has fantastic CS and keeps track , even sending an email when it arrives.
Basically, I sear the fish with EVOO, set aside, using the same frying pan ( obviously with chilean sea bass, no oil is used as it release a lot of oil during searing just like a duck breast), I add to the pan that has EVOO, ginger, garlic, miso, shoaxing wine , a tablespoon or two of mirin to offset the salty miso and some broth till it is reduced., add some spring onions, and sesame oil ,t hen I pour the sauce over the salmon to serve with rice. The sauce reduces very fast because of the miso. ideally, it should be thick enough to glaze the salmon. I like to add my rice to the pot to make use of every bit of that yummy sauce
Mirin is similar to sake , but has more sugar and a lower alcohol content ,14% to be precise .
Adding one more - Parsi patra-ni-macchi ie fish wrapped in a banana leaf (OG en papillote) - fish is coated in green chutney with optional coconut, wrapped up, and steamed. You can also bake it with the chutney as a sauce, but the packet version is a bit different.
These ginger spiked salmon and potato cakes are a delicious way to use scraps that aren’t pristine enough for tartare and too small to use else.
Endless variations, too. The other night I stretched a small amount of salmon with a small can of tiny shrimp, blitzed everything before adding the usual onion, dill, etc.