Teriyaki salmon with steamed rice
Two small pans, four ingredients, glossy and quick
Scales to two by doubling the fish and sauce in the same frying pan and the rice and water in the same small pan.
Teriyaki began as nothing more than a glaze: soy sauce, mirin and sugar reduced together until thick and dark, clinging to whatever they touch. That is still the whole method here. A skinless salmon fillet goes into a hot pan on its own, then the sauce goes in around it and reduces to a syrup while the fish finishes cooking, the two ready within a minute of each other. There is no sesame, no spring onion and no shredded ginger scattered over the top, deliberately: the glaze carries the flavour, and the fewer things floating on the plate, the better this suits a sensitive gut. Rice cooked by absorption sits alongside, needing nothing from you once the lid goes on. If you have never cooked a piece of fish, start here.
Ingredients
Contains: Fish, Gluten, Soya
- 90 gwhite rice, basmati or long-grain, rinsed
- salt
- 2 tbspsoy sauce
- 2 tbspmirin
- 1 tbspsugar
- 1 tspvegetable oil
- 1salmon fillet, about 150 g, skinless and boneless
Method
Rinse the rice, then put it in a small pan with 160 ml of water and a small pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, cover, turn the heat right down and cook for 10 minutes. Lift the lid once at 8 minutes to check nothing is catching.
Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered for a further 5 minutes so the rice finishes steaming. Fluff it with a fork just before serving.
While the rice cooks, stir the soy sauce, mirin and sugar together in a small jug until the sugar has dissolved. This is the whole sauce.
Heat the oil in a small frying pan over a medium-high heat. Lay the salmon in the pan and leave it undisturbed for 3 to 4 minutes, until it releases easily from the pan and the underside is deep golden.
Resist moving the fish early. It lifts cleanly on its own once it is ready, and forcing it tears the flesh.
Turn the fillet over, pour the sauce around it and turn the heat down to medium. Let it bubble for 3 to 4 minutes, spooning the sauce over the fish as it reduces, until it turns thick, glossy and syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon, and the fish is cooked through and flakes easily.
Spoon the rice into a warm bowl, set the salmon on top and pour over any sauce left in the pan.
Watch-points
- Salmon is skinless and boneless here. Run a finger over the fillet and lift out any pin bones before it goes in the pan.
- Skip the usual sesame seeds, spring onion and shredded ginger. If you want a ginger note, infuse a slice in the sauce while it reduces and lift it out before serving. Never leave shreds behind.
- Use white rice only, cooked until every grain is tender through with nothing firm left at the centre.
Make it more nourishing
- Stir a 15 g knob of butter through the hot rice off the heat. It adds about 110 kcal and turns the grains glossy.
- Use a thicker fillet, closer to 200 g, rather than a side dish. More fish means more protein with no extra step.
- Add an extra tablespoon of mirin and a teaspoon of oil to the sauce. It makes a larger, richer pool to spoon over the rice.
Swaps
- Instead of salmon, use skinless white fish such as cod or hake
- any firm fillet takes the glaze well, though it flakes more easily and needs gentler turning
- Instead of mirin, use an extra teaspoon of sugar and a spoon of rice vinegar
- gets close when mirin is not in the cupboard