Teriyaki Glazed Salmon

I'd been craving salmon for a while, and when a coworker brought a store bought bento in for lunch I knew I had to make some.



Start off with a good salmon steak. It's basically a cross section of the salmon, with the spine in the center. If you purchase this at an Asian market then you'll most likely have to request for them to cut it in half, unless you want a 2-3 inch steak. While that would be quite delicious, it's not exactly what we're going for. Give the steak a rub down with good quality extra virgin olive oil, and lightly coat with seasoning, salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Remember to coat both sides. You can also feel free to throw some garlic on top and around to let it roast up nice and sweet. It worked well the first time around, but the second time had the surrounding garlic burn... oops... After the salmon's ready place it in the oven at around 350F and let it cook for 20 minutes.



While this is happening you can make the teriyaki sauce for the glaze. This step is purely optional, as the salmon tastes great even without it. I just happen to like teriyaki sauce ^_~ There's so many recipes for teriyaki sauce out there, but I've found this to be a great basic recipe for it.

• soy sauce
• sugar
• cooking wine

all in equal parts. Of course substitutes can be made. If you have mirin that'd be a great replacement for some of the cooking wine and sugar. Sake works great as well. I enjoy adding minced garlic and grated ginger to my sauce as well. If you'd like your teriyaki sauce to be thick and viscous rather than a liquid add cornstarch before heating. Add all your desired ingredients into a pan and heat on low until the sauces melds into a delicious nectar. If you added cornstarch make sure to bring the sauce to a quick boil to allow the cornstarch to work its magic.



Bout time for the salmon to be finished. If you want to go au naturale then let the salmon broil for 10 minutes and enjoy. If you're going the teriyaki route either use the sauce as a topper after it's finished or add it now and let it broil with the salmon to get that nice sheen. Next time I'll probably either use liquid teriyaki sauce to top, or just top the thicker teriyaki glaze at the end.



Ate the salmon with some sauteed spinach, napa cabbage, jalapeno, and shrimp sauteed together for a nice balance to the heavier flavor of the salmon. The jalapeno was a nice touch that gave it a little punch. Didn't come out looking quite as good as when I broiled it without the sauce. Oh well, still tasty!~


p.s. the tastiest part of the salmon are the two points. The skin and the fat underneath it keep that area nice and juicy and so succulent.