Miso Glazed Salmon

Miso glazed salmon is a really delicious and quick meal to make. The miso on the salmon really brings out that umami flavor in the salmon and the optional soy ginger sauce served on the side just perfects the whole dish. Because salmon cooks so quickly, it makes an ideal weeknight dinner.

If you are not familiar with salmon, it is very easy to work with. When buying salmon, you will have the choice of salmon filets or salmon steaks. The steaks are the salmon cut in strips across the body. The filets are strips cut along the fish. This recipe calls for the filets which has a quick cooking time.

Another thing to consider when purchasing salmon is what type you want. There is sockeye salmon, wild salmon, etc. Whatever filets look freshest are the ones you should buy. Look for fish that is bright, translucent and has no offensive smell.

If the fish is whole at the market, look at the eyes and make sure they are not cloudy. Cloudy means it is not fresh. This applies to all fish.

There is also the choice of wild or farm raised. Farm raised are considered to be more ecologically friendly however sometimes the taste is not as good. There are tradeoffs but this is left to individual preference.

What is miso?

Miso is an Asian fermented soy bean paste (it has other properties that help shape it but this is the main one). It is used in many Asian dishes.

You may have had it at Japanese restaurants in Miso soup or in a Japanese house salad with Miso ginger dressing (really good). It is a base that adds loads of flavor and is healthy.

You can miso paste at almost any grocery store today. There are dark miso pastes and light miso pastes. I prefer the light ones like pictured above. You can use miso in soups, on vegetables or fish like I did here.

It is an ingredient that will not go to waste when you buy it since the uses are endless.

The Sauce:

Now let’s talk about the sauce for this miso glazed salmon. The sauce is optional and I do not always use it when making this dish. I do however use this sauce on just about all my Asian dishes and I am pretty addicted to it.

The sauce is so simple to make. It takes a few ingredients and if you do not have these on hand, I highly recommend buying them because the sauce is that good and I am sure you will make it often once you try it.

The ingredients for the soy ginger sauce are:

• Soy sauce (low sodium)
• Rice wine vinegar (I like to buy the seasoned one)
• toasted sesame oil
• red pepper flakes
• grated fresh ginger

All of this gets mixed up real quick and it is done. The grated fresh ginger can be optional when making this sauce. Depending on what I am serving, I will add it or leave it out.