Teriyaki salmon with short-grain rice and sesame broccoli
Salmon portions seared skin-side down, then glazed in the pan with soy sauce, mirin, sugar and ginger that reduce in two minutes to a glossy syrup, served on short-grain rice that catches the glaze, with steamed broccoli and toasted sesame oil.
Method
- Rinse the rice in cold water, rubbing between your fingers and changing the water until clear (3–4 times), then drain. Put in the 18 cm saucepan with the 220 g cold water, bring to the boil, cover and cook over the lowest heat for 12 minutes, then rest off the heat for 10 minutes without opening.
- While the rice cooks, prepare the glaze in a bowl: mix the soy sauce, mirin, sugar and finely grated ginger until the sugar has almost dissolved. Do not cook it separately: it will reduce in the frying pan. Finely slice the spring onions. Bring water to the boil in the medium saucepan that will hold the steamer basket.
- Toast the sesame seeds in the still-dry 24 cm frying pan over a medium heat for 2 minutes, shaking: they should turn golden and smell nutty. Immediately tip into a bowl; use the pan for the salmon.
- Thoroughly pat the salmon dry with kitchen paper, lightly salt the flesh (1 g, as the glaze is salty) and dust with a thin veil of cornflour, patting off the excess. Heat the oil in the pan over a medium-high heat, put the salmon in skin-side down and leave untouched for 5 minutes: the skin browns and releases easily, and the flesh turns opaque two-thirds of the way up. After 3 minutes, put the broccoli in the basket over the boiling water and cover: in 4–5 minutes it should be bright green, and a knife tip should enter the stalk with slight resistance. Turn the salmon and cook flesh-side down for 1 minute.
- Turn the salmon back onto its skin, blot the fat from the pan with kitchen paper, pour the glaze around the salmon (not over the skin) and let it bubble over a medium-high heat for 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes, constantly spooning it over the flesh: large bubbles form, the glossy sauce coats the back of a spoon and the flesh is covered in a shiny glaze. Take the pan off the heat before the sauce caramelises, or earlier if it sticks to the bottom: it must stay syrupy. The centre should remain pearly and slightly pink and only just flake with a fork (50–52°C if using a thermometer); rest off the heat for 2 minutes, during which it rises to 54°C.
- Fluff the rice with a fork and divide between two deep plates. Lift out the broccoli, season with 1 g salt and drizzle with toasted sesame oil. Put the salmon on the rice, glazed flesh on top, spoon over the glaze left in the pan and scatter with sesame seeds and spring onion. Do not add more salt: the glaze is enough.
Fish-free
- Skin-on boneless salmon fillets → Boneless skinless chicken thighs (pargiyot) 400 g (4 whole boneless thighs of 100 g; 2 (200 g) when making one chicken plate alongside one fish plate)
- For two fish-free plates, use 400 g chicken thighs (4 whole pieces) instead of the 360 g salmon. For one plate with fish and one without, use 1 salmon portion of 180 g and 2 chicken thighs (200 g), leaving the rest of the base recipe for two unchanged.
- Do not salt the chicken: kosher chicken is already salted during koshering. Dry and dust with cornflour as for the salmon. When making both, at step 2, before any contact with raw protein, divide the glaze between two bowls and split the oil (5 g per pan); toast the sesame first, and share the rice and broccoli. Use two separate pans and two separate basting spoons, never swapping them.
- Start the chicken 4 minutes before the salmon, in the second pan (26–28 cm for 4 thighs in one layer, 24 cm for 2): cook smooth-side down over a medium-high heat for 5–6 minutes without moving, until golden and easily released; turn and cook for 4–5 minutes.
- Blot away the released fat, pour in the glaze (its half when making both) and bubble for 2 minutes, basting constantly: the meat should shine, feel firm under a finger and release clear juices (74°C in the centre if using a thermometer). Rest off the heat for 3 minutes and serve the whole thighs on the rice, coated with the glaze from their own pan.
Japanese chicken teriyaki uses thighs, which do not dry out: the same glaze and technique, two pans, and both plates ready together.
Lighter version
- Short-grain rice, for baked rice, stuffing and Tunisian pilaf : 120 g
- Water : 165 g
- Demerara sugar : 10 g
- Sesame seeds : 8 g
- Broccoli : 350 g
At step 1, cook 120 g rice with 165 g water, keeping the same timings. At step 3, toast 8 g sesame seeds (1 level tbsp).
60 g rice per person and 350 g broccoli, with a little less sugar and sesame: mirin already sweetens the glaze, which stays just as shiny. Keep 10 g oil, the minimum for searing the skin in a non-stick pan.
On your plate
Recipe
877 kcal · protein 51 g · carbs 88 g · fat 35 g
Quantities per person
- 180 g Skin-on boneless salmon fillets
- 80 g Short-grain rice, for baked rice, stuffing and Tunisian pilaf
- 110 g Water
- 125 g Broccoli
- 20 g Soya sauce
- 20 g Kosher mirin (sweet rice seasoning)
- 7.5 g Demerara sugar
- 5 g Fresh ginger
- 2.5 g Cornflour
- 1 g Fine salt
- 5 g Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil
- 2.5 g Toasted sesame oil
- 7.5 g Sesame seeds
- 10 g Spring onions
Fish-free version
760 kcal · protein 53 g · carbs 88 g · fat 21 g
Quantities per person
- 80 g Short-grain rice, for baked rice, stuffing and Tunisian pilaf
- 110 g Water
- 125 g Broccoli
- 20 g Soya sauce
- 20 g Kosher mirin (sweet rice seasoning)
- 7.5 g Demerara sugar
- 5 g Fresh ginger
- 2.5 g Cornflour
- 1 g Fine salt
- 5 g Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil
- 2.5 g Toasted sesame oil
- 7.5 g Sesame seeds
- 10 g Spring onions
- 200 g Boneless skinless chicken thighs (pargiyot)
Cooking tips
Make the glaze in the pan at the very end of cooking: soy sauce, mirin and sugar reduce in two minutes to a glossy syrup that thickens further as it cools; taken too far, it caramelises and becomes bitter. Kosher mirin (מירין) can be found in the sushi aisle; otherwise replace the 40 g mirin with 25 g honey, 8 g rice vinegar and 20 g water. A thermometer is optional: remove the salmon at a core temperature of 50–52°C; above 60°C it dries out. Eat leftovers cold the next day, flaked over rice with a little glaze.
Japanese home-style teriyaki: soy sauce, mirin and sugar reduced to a glaze in the pan over seared fish; ginger is a common household addition.
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