Yet another reason to keep teriyaki sauce at hand. Glaze some salmon with teriyaki sauce and char under the broiler for a quick and tasty dinner.
Time: 2/5
Dinner and leftovers in less than an hour
Effort: 2/5
Sit back and let the oven do the work
A sauce in need is a sauce indeed
The teriyaki method is something I’ve covered before: cook a protein, coat in sauce, optionally broil or char. I’ve shown it with chicken, with mackerel, and now I’m going to do it with salmon. A slight modification being that salmon doesn’t take long to cook, so steps one and two can be combined.
Ever since making a big batch of sauce for the teriyaki chicken post, I’ve been keeping it in a squeeze bottle in the fridge. I take the bottle out for a spin, every now and then, whenever I need a quick and delicious weeknight meal.
It’s been almost a year now, and the sauce is still growing strong. I’ve been making eyes at the frozen salmon cubes we got during our last grocery haul and getting ideas. (this place near us sells them at a very good bargain, I use the same salmon for my Miso Glazed Salmon bowls).
Teriyaki anything is pretty much standard operating procedure now, so there weren’t any surprises about how the food is going to taste: pretty good, and very decent for a home cooked meal considering the amount of work that went into it (or rather, the lack thereof!)
So here’s Teriyaki Salmon, a reliable workhorse of a method for weeknight dinner applied to one of my favourite foods.
Dramatis Personae
Salmon – 100-200g pax
I get mine in 300g packs of frozen cubes, which conveniently translates to two portions. We don’t eat a lot, and most of our meals are rice (surprise surprise) so if you’re not that into rice and/or are (or are aspiring to become) a bigger person you might want to use bigger portion sizes than I do here.
If you have the time, I highly recommend coating the salmon in the sauce at least a couple hours before you cook, to let the flavours marinade a bit. I tossed my fish in the sauce immediately before cooking, and while it didn’t exactly come out bland it did leave something to be desired.
Teriyaki sauce
I cover the details in the Chicken Teriyaki post, but here is the short version. Simmer mirin, soy sauce and sugar together until slightly thickened, taste and adjust the proportions until you like it. Some additions you might like include vinegar, minced ginger and minced garlic.
Vegetables – 150-200g pax
Always eat your veggies! Napa cabbage is becoming one of my favourite vegetables for meal prep because they’re big and so easy to break down. One large Napa cabbage would easily make six generous portions, although I’ve stretched this one out to eight. A simple stir fry with a bit of garlic and salt is all it takes to bring out their natural sweetness.
Executive summary
- Get rice cooking, and preheat oven to 180c/350f. Prepare vegetables.
- Toss salmon in teriyaki sauce until lightly coated.
- Spread salmon out onto a baking sheet lined with foil and baking paper.
- Roast salmon in the top rack for about 10 minutes.
- While waiting for salmon, cook vegetables.
- Assemble and serve.
Play by Play
Breaking down the Napa cabbage. The top and middle sections come apart easily after cutting like this, but it’s a bit of work peeling the leaves off of the stem. Give them a good wash, and peel some garlic cloves.
This is why we always wash our vegetables, kids. Look at all the grit the Napa leaves left behind.
Since I already had the teriyaki sauce made, I can go straight to glazing. It’s entirely possible to do these steps ahead of time, so all you need to do is stick the baking sheet into the oven when you get back home.
Briefly sizzle garlic in some oil, then force the vegetables in. I don’t have the patience to cook in batches. Eventually the Napa cabbage wilted down enough that I could stir it around. Salt to taste.
This is what 10 minutes on the top rack at 180c/350f got me. The tops are nice and brown, and the fish is starting to flake apart. It’s time to eat!
Itadakimasu~. Pickled radishes are my SO’s favourite. Some miso soup is a nice touch, as would a wedge of lemon.
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