My husband found this recipe off Cooking with Dog, a cooking video/blog he found online. Cooking with Dog explains Yakizuke, as fish that is first grilled, then marinated.
Feel free to skip down to the end of this post if you’re just here for the recipe; or read on to see why I love this meal for summer.
We like that this recipe is refreshing, simple, and has a great range of flavors and textures. It reminds me of a Japanese Breakfast I recently had for my birthday in Okonomi. The meal seemed simple, but was a full eating experience where you slow down and really try to taste the flavors and how they work harmoniously together.
We made this meal for my husband’s birthday (I did the marinade and he pan fried it). I made King Soba Buckwheat Noodles (noodles signify longevity) and served it with boiled eggs (signifies good luck), grilled peppers and portobello mushrooms!
It came out really, really tasty– a perfectly refreshing summer meal. The smokiness of the grilled salmon (we pan fried it) absorbed the Unami flavor of the marinade, a perfect balance of salty and sweet.
The marinade is then elevated to another layer of flavor as you throw in the freshly grilled scallions and dried wakame. All the individual flavors from the sweet oniony scallion and smoky wakame work it’s way slowly into the lemony marinade.
When you go ahead and add the roasted Peppers and mushrooms toppings, they both add their own humble, but standout flavors– peppery and earthy.
It’s like a subtle and refreshing BBQ type of flavor. The most balanced BBQ I’ve ever had.
You can choose to serve the Salmon Yakizuke on the side with soba noodles and dipping broth on the side and have it all separately. It’ll be a nice slower, and more appreciative eating experience of tasting each component of the meal separately. You decide where you want to begin and play around with what flavor combination and order taste best to you!
You can also chose to wash fewer dishes and put it all in the same bowl.
The salmon can probably sit in the marinade for hours; however, remember not to let the soba noodles sit too long in the dipping-broth because the noodles alone are meant to be dipped and slurped up, and the broth is not really for drinking (unless you dilute the noodle dipping broth).
Ready to make this fine summer meal? Read on!
Here’s the Picture Walk
Salmon Yakizuke Ingredients (recipe adapted from Cooking with Dog)
Salmon (pat dry and gently coated with flour) (we used 4)
Few Stalks of Scallion (seared/grilled)
Assorted Peppers ( we used a combination of red, yellow and orange– shishito peppers pair well with this too)
Portobello Mushrooms
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
4 tbsp Sake
4tbsp Mirin
4 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 tsp wakame seaweed
Lemon packets (we used two packets of the emergency lemon we have at home– True Lemon)
Boiled eggs (optional-‘but highly recommend)
Salmon Yakizuke Steps
1- Bring all the sake, mirin, vinegar, and soy sauce in a pot to a boil for about a minute (to evaporate the alcohol), transfer to a wide enough dish to hold and marinade all the cooked salmon.
2- Put in the tsp of wakame to the wide dish to flavor the marinade.
3-Sear the scallions and toss it in the wide dish as well. This is one of my favorite parts of the dish, especially the seared white part that becomes sweeter).
4- Pan fry the gently coated floured salmon (you can omit the flour if you’d like-but it does somewhat give it a better sear) until done.
5- Place the cooked salmon into the wide dish to marinate and deep in flavor. We didn’t time it; instead, we just let it sit until the Soba noodles were down cooking.
4-Pan fry/sear the peppers and use it as a topping. Lightly salt to your liking.
5- Pan Fry portobello mushrooms and use it as a topping. Likely salt to your liking.
Dipping Soba Noodles Ingredients
We made 2 packs of 3 King Soba Buckwheat Noodles (about 6 parcels for about 6 people)
Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu Soup Base for noodles (we did 1 cup base and 3 cups of water for dipping- I believe the label says to double the water if you are turning it to a stew)
Steps
Follow package instructions– at first I though it was so clumpy and thick that the noodles would be soggy– I boiled mine for about 5 minutes mixing and tossing it non stop to prevent it from sticking to the pan or clumping together. It was still clumpy for the most part.
***BE SURE TO get a large pot of cold water to cool down the noodles immediately– I am happy to say the King Culture buckwheat Soba noodles were the tastiest and springiest Soba Noodles we ever had– great bounce, bite, texture and flavor! We will be trying out their ramen next and loading up on their Soba.
Dipping Noodles are perfect for the warmer weather! Not all Soba bases are created equal- this is the best flavored brand we tried so far for dipping broth. The King Culture Buckwheat Noodles are tasty and perfectly chewy! Spiral zucchini noodles would be amazing with this too! Have you ever had Dipping Noodles before? Eat do you like to serve yours with?
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