We love salmon! It is really as simple as that. While Diana has traveled all over Alaska, she never got to jump on a salmon boat until I went fishing with our friend Marsh last summer. Fishing in Sitka was an amazing adventure on its own, but having Diana there to make us laugh and document the experience on the F/V Loon was invaluable.
Perhaps one of the best things about being incredibly connected to a sustainable seafood company is creating recipes seasonally and having a freezer full of perfect fish at all times. Normally, I like to keep things reasonably simple with preparing salmon for myself, but from time to time, my arsenal of awesome ingredients comes together to create the perfect storm of deliciousness. Having fisherman friends isn’t enough; we have friends in the condiment/fermenting world, too!
Jeff, my best bud in New York, does super cool stuff at the Momofuku culinary lab. As part of their product line, they hand-make small batch, fermented condiments from local grains. The miso-esque paste, hozon, is made from chickpeas or sunflower seeds (depending on the variation) and really celebrates the beautiful grains they started out with. The end results are salty, complex flavors that marry the richness of Marsh’s hand-caught salmon. We love when our meal reflects perfection from the source to our forks.
- ¼ cup mirin
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- ¼ cup white or yellow miso paste, we were fancy and used chickpea hozon
- 4, 8 ounce WILD salmon fillets
- Whisk mirin, soy, brown sugar and miso paste together in a shallow dish. Pat fillets dry and lay in the dish skin side up. Marinate your fish in this mixture for at least 2 hours, but the longer the better. If you’re using frozen wild fish, we aren’t opposed to you letting your fish thaw overnight in a ziploc with this mixture and making the next night for dinner.
- When your fish has marinated, remove from the dish, leaving the fish coated with a thin layer of the miso mixture. Preheat your broiler on high and place a rack about 6 inches from the heat source. Place skin side up on a foil-lined baking sheet (the miso mixture is sticky so it will cook to a tray pretty well if left unlined). Broil 3-4 minutes until the miso mixture has dried and started to bubble. Gently flip fish and broil the flesh side of the fish for an additional 3-4 minutes until the mixture has bubbled and the fish begins to flake.
Thank you for the great tip I love to make fish now I will think of you every time I make fish! I can’t try your recipes. Thank you!