Miso Salmon with Soba Noodles

, from Issue #30. September, 2015
Photography by Nick Tresidder.
Miso Salmon with Soba Noodles

Serves: 4

INGREDIENTS

Salmon
350 gram fillet of salmon, skin off
2 tablespoons white miso paste
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons each sesame oil and soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Noodles
100 grams soba noodles
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 leek, white and pale green part only, finely sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dashi powder
4 cups water

Salad
1 carrot, julienne
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
½ long red chilli, seeded, thinly sliced
small handful coriander leaves

METHOD

Salmon: Remove the pin bones from the salmon using tweezers and cut into 5 cm pieces. Combine the miso, sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce in a dish, add the salmon and turn to coat well. Leave for 30 minutes or cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

Noodles: Cook the soba noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain well.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and cook the leek and garlic with a pinch of salt until tender. Add the soy sauce, dashi powder and water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

Salmon: Heat the oil in a non-stick sauté pan over a medium-low heat and sauté the salmon until golden and cooked to your liking. The marinade will burn quickly if the heat is too high.

To serve: Combine the carrot, spring onions, chilli and coriander. Place the noodles in individual bowls and pour over the hot broth. Top with the salmon and a small stack of the salad.

Miso: a thick paste made most commonly from fermenting soy beans, salt and a fungus called ‘koji-kin’. The different shades denote aging and saltiness (the darker ones have been aged longer and are therefore saltier). Miso is available from Japanese food stores, health food stores and good supermarkets. Keep leftover miso paste in a sealed container in the freezer. It doesn’t freeze into a solid block, which makes it easy to take out the required amount.