Salmon with Miso Maple Orange Glaze

I used to make this pretty often when I lived as a student. Strange, huh? Students generally are eating frozen pizzas, or Michaelina’s frozen entrees, but nope. I was determined to eat well. I think it helped me balance myself emotionally as I found it very meditative to take an hour out to cook and eat for myself. I only made this when there was a sale on salmon, and whenever there was one, I’d get a huge fillet and happily bike home. One day, I had two of my friends over for dinner, and I wanted to change up the salmon recipe that I usually had (Salmon with lemon and dill in parchment paper oven baked) so I made up this recipe with all the ingredients that I love to eat, and voila. This is now my favourite way to have salmon.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp Japanese Miso Paste
• 1/4 cup Light Soy Sauce
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1/4 cup Maple Syrup
• 1 Orange, Zest and Juice (not pictured, oops)
• 3 Tbsp of Mirin (Optional)
• 1 inch Fresh Ginger Minced
• 4 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp Corn Starch
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 Chilli
• 2 Green Onions (not pictured, oops again)
• As much salmon fillet as you’d like.
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil

1. Heat a table spoon of sesame oil in a sauce pan and add miso paste, soy sauce, lemon juice and maple syrup. Whisk to incorporate the Miso paste.

2. Chop up garlic, add zest and juice of an orange, Mirin, and add minced ginger.

3. Add minced chilli, turn off the heat, and whisk in corn starch and water. Set aside.
       
4. Wash and portion out the salmon fillet. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.

5. Heat up some olive oil in a pan and sear the salmon on one side.

6. Meanwhile, slice up a couple green onion.

7. Not Quite.

8. Wait until you can see that it’s half way cooked, then flip over to the other side and sear until the the flesh is firmer to the touch and browned.

Note: Once you’ve flipped it, there’s no going back. You can’t flip it back on the other side that you’ve already seared on. This will result in an over cooked, dry, flaky salmon. You don’t want that. It’s like cooking steak. All the juices in the steak will evaporate and escape if you flip it more than once.
9. Stand it on the sides to brown. Set aside on a plate to rest a bit.
 
10. Put the cut up green onion in to the pan and cook it lightly until slightly wilted. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve it up with some rice (I had quinoa and brown rice with beans) and the miso maple orange glaze with the green onions on top. Also with a wedge of lime or lemon.