I will never forget my surprise when I first bit into a piece of salmon teriyaki. Growing up I was never really a fan of seafood, mainly because my family rarely ate it. However, a few years ago I saw salmon teriyaki on the menu at a local Japanese restaurant and it caught my eye. Salmon teriyaki is pretty rare around my parts – chicken teriyaki usually being the only option. The fact that it was on the menu at all must have meant something, so I thought to myself, Why not try it?Biting into a delightfully crisp skin brought an instant smile to my face, and combining it with wonderfully flaky salmon full of delicious umami flavor trapped inside was an experience I will never forget, and I hope you won’t either!
When I first started cooking Japanese food I relied heavily on prepared bottles for various sauces. While easy to use, these sauces are loaded with extra ingredients and preservatives which can really affect taste! Did you know that they don’t even have teriyaki sauce sold in bottles in Japan? Once I learned that teriyaki sauce was basically made of four basic things (soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar) I will never use teriyaki sauce from a bottle again! The ratio of ingredients may vary depending on the type of meat used, but other than that, teriyaki is easy to make at home!
Recipe – Salmon Teriyaki:
– For the sauce – Combine the soy sauce, mirin and sugar in a small pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Once tiny bubbles appear, simmer until the volume of sauce has reduced to half. Be careful not to let it get too hot, it is really easy to forget it and let the sugar burn!!
– Cut the salmon filet into 4 to 6 pieces and pat dry with a paper towel. If you are cooking for picky eaters you can cut away the skin, but the skin is the best part when eating fried fish, so if at all possible leave it on! We want to cut the salmon into smaller pieces to maximize the amount of surface area and get that wonderful contrast between crisp and juicy.
– Pour cake flour into a small plate. (If you don’t have cake flour you can use regular flour, but the coating is soo much lighter and flakier with cake flour) Prepare the salmon by lightly dredging the pieces in flour. Use your fingertips to press the flour into the filet, making sure all sides are evenly covered.
– In a wide skillet pour just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat the oil over medium high heat and once hot add the salmon. Fry for 5 minutes until the bottom is nice and crisp. Fight the urge to touch the fish more than necessary, you don’t want to cause the salmon to flake away!
– Flip the filets over and fry for an additional 5 minutes until the salmon is just cooked through.
– Remove salmon from the frying pan and coat each piece in the teriyaki glaze. Serve immediately.
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