Just came back from a trip to Japan and would love to recreate at home a simple meal of Salmon and rice. I always hated Salmon in the US but in japan it tastes so different! Please help with tips? Is it a different breed of Salmon there?
by Regular_Coyote8969
10 Comments
Salmon used in the applications you have in the pics are shio-jyake.
It’s basically a salt cured salmon that’s then (often but not necessarily cooked in a pan) pan-fried. Super cheap ones in Japan use farmed salmon now-a-days, but the OG recipe uses wild salmon. That’s in large part why the flavor is so different.
Salt draws moisture out in the curing process and so intensifies the salmon flavor.
Try norwegian salmon.
That’s where salmon in japan came from anyway.
Traditional japanese salmon are chum salmon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chum_salmon?wprov=sfti1#
I believe that for salmon (unlike for example chicken) is really dependent on the quality you get. I realised that I don’t like salmon from any supermarket (I actually never liked salmon and would never order one nor cook one until I ate a proper good one). Go to a good fish shop for good salmon, and ask for a relatively fatty cut.
Then follow the salmon-based recipes on Just One Cookbook. I personally really like the miso salmon one. One very important thing is to avoid overcooking the fish, so using a thermometer is a must. The difference between a perfectly moist and flaky salmon and a dry one is a few (celsius) degrees away.
Damn. Now I want to eat a salmon bento even though I already ate cheap kebab sandos from across the street. Maybe I’ll go see if anything gets marked down at the supermarket later.
Haven’t gone so far as Just One Cookbook. I usually just get Norweigan salmon (or whichever one is marked down), do a quick salting and let it sit for a few minutes before patting dry and pan-frying. Good news is that salmon is pretty forgiving even if it’s undercooked.
it looks like you ate salted salmon, a certainty if it was a breakfast meal. Wegmans carries it and there are online recipes. It is unbelievably easy to cook, just stick it in the oven until skin turns very crispy
Salt-cured, fire roasted or fried.
If you are near an Asian market, look for a bottle of shio koji. For the size of salmon in your pics, evenly spread about a tablespoon of it on each side, put it in a zip lock bag and get the air out, and let it marinate overnight. Bake or grill it.
Salt and broil
looking at the first pic,I’m suddenly regretting not buying the miso soup sachets I saw at the market today😭😭