Tag Archive for 'salmon'

Salmon Oyako Wappa Meshi

Published
by
marc
on November 16, 2008
in Japanese
. 9 Comments

One of my favourite Japanese restaurants in San Francisco is Maki. It’s a little hole in the wall in Japan Center next to a bookstore and while it would be hard to go wrong with anything on the menu, their specialty is Wappa Meshi. It’s a steamed rice dish that’s a specialty of the Fukishima prefecture in central Japan.

Wappa Meshi is basically rice steamed in a cyprus container with some type of fish or mountain vegetable on top. Since moving out east I haven’t been able to find a place that serves this regional specialty, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. Though I wasn’t able to find the proper steaming vessel here, my improvisation using a rice cooker turned out pretty well.

This particular version gets its name from the combination of salted salmon and salmon roe on top. “Oyako” literally means “parent and child” in Japanese and is more commonly used to refer to oyako donburi, a rice bowl with chicken and chicken egg on top. In this case, it refers to the salmon and its roe.

Adding sake to the rice gives it a nice nutty aroma while steaming the salmon on top infuses the rice with some salmon flavor. You could of course omit the roe if that’s not your thing and you can top it with everything from unagi to chicken to beef.

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Slow roasted salmon with peanut curry sauce and snap pea slaw

Published
by
marc
on June 21, 2008
in Asian, Dinner, Dinner party, Roast, Seafood, Southeast and Uncategorized
. 12 Comments

When it comes to seafood, common knowledge tells us to cook it hot and fast, so when I saw slow roasted Steelhead on the menu at the Painted Lady in Newberg Oregon, I was skeptical. I guess curiosity won over my skepticism because I ordered it.

The dish as a whole was a disaster. There was so much going on I can’t even remember half the things in/on/around the steelhead, but the limp overdressed arugula and prosciutto were memorable as was the fact that the dish was sooo salty I couldn’t taste much of anything else. Though in all fairness to the restaurant, the service was very friendly and the appetizer and dessert were both good.

So if it sounds bad and tasted bad, why would I make my own rendition?

As I said, the dish as a whole was a disaster. The slow roasted Steelhead on the other hand was transformational! As I was eating it, I went back and forth between oral bliss as the Steelhead melted into a pool of flavor on my tongue and utter indignation over the travesty that was on my fork.

Determined to fix this injustice I spent the next few days contemplating what I’d pair with the moist and melty morsels. This peanut and spicy red curry sauce melds perfectly with the creaminess and earthiness of the roasted salmon while the crispy, sweet and minty slaw strikes a pleasing juxtaposition, that will cool your palette and bring a smile to your face.

A couple things to note, use the best sockeye salmon or steelhead trout you can find (wild and line caught ideally). When making the sauce, don’t let it boil as the oil will separate (I turned my back for a few minutes as I was reheating it and it boiled which is why the photo doesn’t look so great).
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Salmon with a minty miso glaze

Published
by
marc
on May 22, 2008
in Asian, BBQ, Japanese and Seafood
. 16 Comments

First things first, I entered my Orecchiette with Ramps and Fiddleheads recipe into the Spring Pasta Competition over at Italy Magazine. There are a lot of other delicious sounding entries to check out. Oh and don’t forget to vote:-)

Also, Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy gave us a Yummy blog award. While we don’t participate in memes, I wanted to post a link to her truly yummy blog to say thanks!

I knew I was going to be home late from work today and was trying to figure out what I could make that wasn’t going to have me eating at midnight. I decided to do some kind of seafood and it was either going to be prawns with a tamarind sauce, or salmon… whichever was cheaper/fresher at Wholefoods.

I got there and they had the end pieces of bigger fillets on sale for $4.99 a pound. SCORE! I’d originally thought about having it with some baby mizuna greens, but on the way to the cashier I saw a little yucca sitting there all by its lonesome just begging to be cooked. More on this in my next post…

While I love having most fish prepared simply with some olive oil, a dash of salt and lemon for squeezing, salmon has a bit of a “taste” and I didn’t much care for it as a kid. I’ve grown to like it, but it’s still not one of my favourite fish.

Among salmon’s redeeming qualities are that it’s got a ton of oil if you get the right cut, it’s easy to find and it’s farmed (although there’s some debate as to the ecological impacts of fish farming), so you don’t have to worry about depleting the ocean’s supply.

When you buy salmon, in addition to checking for freshness (firm, glistening meat), try to get cuts that come from closer to the head as they tend to have more oil that will keep it moist. You can tell where it’s from by looking at the shape, the cut’s near the tail are shaped like the letter “D” when viewed in profile while the cuts coming from near the head are shaped like a the letter “P” when viewed in profile. You can also usually see more marbling of fat in the pieces from near the head.

Getting back to that “taste” that salmon has, I think of it kind of like lamb. It’s not so unpleasant as to make it inedible, but it’s not something I look forward to tasting. Despite this, I love lamb and I’ve found ways to mask some of the “taste” without covering up all the other good qualities of the meat. Using lots of aromatics like garlic and mint really help. I thought I’d try out the same technique on my salmon.

The glaze is decidedly Japanese with its sweet miso and sesame base, but the garlic, cilantro and mint add a wonderful fresh Southeast Asian element that really makes this dish. The combo of flavors is quite unique and I’d imagine it would go well on all kinds of things (grilled eggplant, grilled squid, lamb kabobs, etc).
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Grilled sea bass donburi

Published
by
marc
on April 1, 2008
in Dinner, Japanese and Seafood
. 5 Comments

Grilled sea bass donburi

I had some bass left over from another dish I made, so I dropped it in some all-purpose Japanese marinade and turned it into this donburi.

There’s a layer of dashi tamago (japanese style scrambled eggs) between the rice and the bass that adds some sweet richness to the dish and the sansho (a.k.a. sichuan pepper) powder on top adds an herbal kick. This works best with an oily fish like sea bass or salmon, but you could use other fish as well if you’re looking for something lighter.

cooked rice

for grilled bass
1 batch of Japanese marinade
2 pieces of fish with high oil content (sea bass, yellow tail, salmon)

for dashi tamago
2 eggs
3 tsp concentrated dashi
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp Mirin
1 heaping tsp sugar

Marinate the fish in the Japanese marinade overnight.

Prepare some rice.

Grill the fish either over a barbeque or in a broiler until cooked and the marinade has caramelized to form a deep mahogany finish on the surface of the fish.

For the dashi tamago, whisk the ingredients together, heat a non-stick pan over medium heat until hot. Swirl a bit of oil around then add the egg. Turn down the heat to medium low and use a heat-proof silicon spatula to scrape up the cooked egg from the bottom. Let another layer cook then scrape it up too. Repeat until you have big fluffy curds of egg that are still a little wet (it will be fully cooked by the time you plate it).

Put some cooked rice down in a bowl, layer some egg on top and set the fish on top of the egg. Garnish with a sprinkle of powdered sansho and some green shiso.

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