Salmon with Soy Mirin Sauce

I'm a sucker for crisy salmon skin and raw\rare cooked salmon. I've been trying to find a way with pan-cooked salmon, to have both the tasty crispy salmon skin with a nice medium-rare interior. Basically I wanted my salmon to still retain some of it's raw salmon freshness, with a bit of taste from some soy and mirin (so its not too bland), with a crispy Salmon skin top.

With past experiments, I tried marinating the piece of salmon in the soy marinade, although the salmon was really tasty, I couldn't get the skin to crisp. The other alternate method I tried was with pan-frying the salmon skin (salted) side down first, then turning it over and adding the marinade to the pan as the salmon cooked. I found with this method the marinade burnt too easily.. I think .. Something to do with the sugar content in the marinade.

So.. this is the method that works for me. To prep for the crispy skin, I tried to dry out the salmon skin as much as possible with a piece of kitchen paper towel. Seasoned it with a generous amount of freshly grounded salt, then place onto a plate (curved sides) with the skin side up, ready for the marinade. Make the marinade and pour the contents around the salmon. Make sure you don't pour the marinade on top of the salmon (if you do, the skin won't be crispy). Marinate for about 30-40 mins. Moving the salmon piece around every 10 mins or so. Just before cooking, drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of the skin.

Heat up the pan until its hot. Place salmon skin down first and cook for about 2 mins. Then turn the salmon over and continue to cook for another 3-4 mins on medium-high heat.


Pan-fried Salmon with Soy Mirin Sauce
The salmon & soy mirin combo is no newbie...but the method of preparing\cooking is my own

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• couple of dashes of sesame oil
• 1 thumbsized piece of ginger (smashed)

1. Take a piece of salmon fillet, make sure all scales are removed and pat the skin dry with a paper towel. Season generously with some freshly grinded sea salt.


2. Prepare marinade. Pour marinade around the piece of salmon. You may need to lift the corners of the salmon to let the marinade into the middle. Let sit for 30-40 mins, while doing some lifting\moving of the salmon every 10mins or so.


3. Preheat the pan to high heat. Drizzle some olive oil over the salmon skin. Place salmon skin down onto the pan and cook for 2 mins on high heat.


4. Flip the salmon over and after 1 min turn the heat down to medium-high. Continue to cook for another 3 mins. You should see the sides of the salmon flesh turn opaque.


5. Remove from the pan and let rest on a plate for a couple of minutes before serving.


6. The leftover marinade can be added to be pan after the salmon has been removed. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the marinade, bring to a light simmer on low heat and the marinade will turn into a 'soy mirin' sauce you can drizzle around the plated piece of salmon.

Serve with some steamed baby bok choy .... :)

Pork Sausages Broiled with Japanese Mayo

One of the things I've picked up after coming back from Japan...

....and thats to put Japanese egg mayo on top of everything !!

These are sausages I've got from the butcher that I first cooked on my grilled pan. With the oven switched onto the grill setting, I generously squeezed japanese 'baby brand' mayo over the cooked sausages, then placed it under the grill for about 2 minutes. Until the mayo has melted.

As you can see from the picture, I topped up some of the other pork sausages I had with some fresh mayo - just to see what it would taste like. I would probably just leave it to the broiled mayo only next time.

And it was good. Tasted very much like the japanese fatty pork on skewers with mayo you can get from Izakaya places in japan.

40 Clove Chicken

There are many versions of this recipe around. The thing that makes this dish different and so yummy is the amount of garlic used... 40++ cloves of garlic!! The garlic turns out amazingly sweet. But still have some breath mints handy. :)

I'm not sure where I first saw this recipe anymore. But after seeing the pictures from Alice Q. Foodie made me want to cook it again. Here is my take on it...

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

• 3 x Maryland chicken (Thighs and legs chopped - skin on)
• 2-3 Heads of Garlic. (I'm lazy... and just leave it smashed and unpeeled)
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 Cups Dry white wine
• 3 tablespoon Cognac (optional)
• Handful of fresh herbs (I used Sage & Thyme)
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1/4 Cup of Thickening Cream
• 2 tablespoons butter & 2 tablespoons plain flour
• Salt & Pepper

Pre-heat Oven to 180C. Pat the chicken pieces dry with a paper towel, and season with salt and pepper. Heat the butter with 1/2 of the olive oil in a Dutch Oven and brown the chicken, skin side down first.

Remove the chicken to a plate, and add garlic cloves to the pot. Saute on low heat until it turns golden brown. Add 1 Tbl sp of the Cognac, then add all the wine. Bring to boil and continue to stir, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pot.

Return chicken to the pot. Add herbs and tuck the Bay leaves in between the chicken pieces.

Cover and braise in the oven for about 45 minutes - until chicken is tender.

Remove chicken to a baking dish and put under the grill. Just long enough so that the skin on the chicken starts to go golden brown.

Squeeze out the garlic from the skins. Add remaining Cognac to the sauce. Bring to boil and add cream. Melt the butter in a separate saucepan then add flour. Once it has combined and starts to bubble, add this mixture to the sauce.

Spoon garlic sauce over the chicken and serve.