Marinated Miso Salmon

Experience a delicate blend of bold flavors when marinating with miso. The marriage of sweet and savory, harmonizing in your mouth hits you like an escape to a culinary journey beyond your kitchen.

This recipe is adapted from my mother's version of Marinated Miso Salmon and calls for miso paste. Miso paste is a Japanese ingredient made of fermented ground soybeans. In America, soybean paste can be generally found in all Japanese supermarkets, most Asian supermarkets, or in the refrigerated section at your local health store.

Generally, miso can be found as red miso, white miso, or mixed miso. Experiment with different miso types and brands to find your favorite miso paste. When you do, you'll find that you can enjoy marinating with miso, making salad dressing with miso, making dipping sauces with miso, and of course, making traditional Japanese miso soup.

Keep in mind, when marinating, miso will be wasted, so what I like to do is reserve the miso paste I use for miso soup (I prefer Marukome's Ryotei no Aji Miso Paste), solely for miso soup because it has a very robust flavor, contrasted to the miso paste I use for marinating which is of lower quality. You can usually tell by the pricing and by the more saltier overtones trying to cover the lack of robustness in the miso.

My mother's recipe is perfect for preparing in advance and salmon can always be substituted for other varieties of fish, such as my mother's favorite, sablefish (or black cod). If you would like to prepare the salmon days in advance, remember after the overnight marinating to take the salmon out of the refrigerator and place the salmon into a plastic bag for freezing. On the night you want to serve the salmon, take the salmon out to defrost during the day and remember to wipe off the excess miso before you bake, per instructions below.

Marinated Miso Salmon

Difficulty: Easy
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Marinating Time: At least overnight
Cooking Time: 1 hour (depending on your oven)
Serves: Four

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. fillet of salmon
1 tub of miso paste
1 tsp. of sugar
2 tbsp. of cooking Mijiu (rice wine, can be substituted with sake or white wine)
1/4 cup of green onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Directions:

1.) Scoop a generous spoonful of miso paste from the tub. Use your eye to judge if the miso is enough to cover both sides of the salmon.

2.) In a bowl, mix the miso, sugar, and cooking wine together.

3.) Coat all sides of the salmon with the miso mixture. Massage the miso gently onto the fish with your hands or the back of a spoon. Place the coated salmon onto a plate.

4.) Cover the plate and salmon with a plastic wrap and marinate the salmon in the refrigerator overnight.

5.) After the salmon has marinated over the night or for two full days, take the salmon out of the refrigerator, and preheat the over to 350 degrees F.

6.) With a paper towel, wipe off all the excess miso on the fillet. This step is crucial and necessary to prevent the salmon from burning in the oven.

7.) On a baking sheet, line with parchment paper or foil (spray with cooking spray or drizzle with olive oil, if on foil) and place the salmon on top. Drizzle with a little more wine and salt and pepper.

8.) Slide the salmon onto the middle rack of the oven and bake until the top is caramelized with a brown hue. Take the salmon out and flip the fillet onto the other side. Slide the salmon back into the oven and bake the salmon until the top becomes caramelized and crispy as well.

9.) Once the salmon is done, remove the salmon out of the oven. Plate the salmon. Garnish with the chopped green onions and a wedge of lemon.

And there you have it. A very simple to make and absolutely savory salmon marinated in miso. If you have mirin lying around your refrigerator, you can always add mirin into the miso mixture for marinating or jazz the salmon up with a simple mirin and light soy sauce glaze during the baking process. And if baking the salmon isn't enough, grilling the salmon will provide a beautiful crust to the fish.

Enjoy, and I hope this recipe gives you a small glimpse to the infinite possibilities miso paste brings to food.