My favourite food is anything chicken and rice. If chicken is unavailable then anything and rice is good. Today it is salmon and rice. My top three ways of grilling salmon: on its own with some salt and pepper, with a teriyaki glaze and with a gochujang maple glaze (slightly updated below).
After I prepared today’s raw salmon (to go on top of some hot steamed rice later) I did a search on this blog and realised I had written a similar recipe three years ago. Forgetting I have a recipe and creating it from scratch makes life interesting. It is also more honest than, say, a manufacturer changing the packaging on a product then labelling it as ‘new’, along with an inflated price. Nothing I cook is really new as I have been helping in the kitchen or cooking for as long as I could comfortably reach the kitchen counter.
Normally a dish made up of salmon, cucumber and avocado (bland x 3) will have nothing going for it. Adding ginger, chives, chilli and a dressing draws out their inherent flavours. The salmon can be made ahead of time and chilled, then served on just boiled rice for a quick meal. The reason I need a quick dinner tonight is that I am watching Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars which I highly recommend. I rate it higher than all the Masterchefs I have ever watched.
The main ingredients of salmon, cucumber and avocado, along with ginger, chives and chilli to enhance their flavours
The dressing made with soya sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar
For the Salmon:
400 g fillet of salmon, skinned and diced into small cubes
120 g cucumber, skinned, deseeded and diced into small cubes
1 small avocado, skinned, deseeded and diced into small cubes
2 tablespoons finely sliced chives
2 teaspoons finely grated ginger
½ – 1 teaspoon finely chopped red chilli (optional)
5 teaspoons soya sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
large pinch of caster sugar
large pinch of sea salt
few twists of black pepper
toasted sesame seeds for mixing in with the rice before serving
Place all the ingredients, except the sesame seeds, into a large mixing bowl and toss gently with a large metal spoon.
Store in the fridge until required, but no more than a few hours.
Serve the salmon on top of freshly cooked rice, along with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.
For the Gochujang Maple Salmon:
400 g fillet of salmon, skinned
1 tablespoons doenjang (Korean bean paste) or miso
1 tablespoons gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Toasted white sesame seeds
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 160°C fan / 180°C.
Place the the doenjang, gochujang, maple syrup and sesame oil in a bowl and mix into a paste.
Make a few slits in the salmon and rub the paste all over the salmon and into the slits.
Line a small baking tray with foil.
Place the salmon on the foil and bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until cooked through. Alternatively, grill under a medium heat until the fish is cooked through.
Serve warm with rice and a side salad.
Evolution: from raw ingredients to finished dish
