Salmon will cook in 5 minutes and ‘taste better’ by adding 1 simple ingredient to marinade
Salmon is one of the quickest things to cook, but it can often taste bland or fishy. Luckily, a cook has shared the best way to get a charred, sweet and savoury result with a tender interior.
Salmon is full of good fats and is easy and quick to cook, making it a great choice to have in your regular dinner rotation. But just having a plain piece of seared, baked, or grilled salmon can get boring quickly. To jazz it up, a cooking expert recommends marinating it with several ingredients, and one of those plays the “most important” role.
Cooking expert Kenji Lopez of Serious Eats claimed that adding miso to your salmon makes the fish “taste better than any other recipe or technique” and “guarantees perfectly cooked salmon”. The miso weakening proteins in the salmon flesh and allows it to retain more moisture as it cooks. Miso also plays another “important role” - insulator. The expert explained: “As a thick paste, it coats your fillet, letting it heat through much more gently and evenly as it cooks.”
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With this method, it’s key to start with thick salmon fillets, as you want them to be able to cook quickly on the exterior while leaving the centre relatively cool.
The cook warned: “This won’t work with very thin fillets. Aim for salmon fillets at least an inch thick, and up to two.”
Ingredients
One quarter cup of red or white miso
One-third cup of sake
One tablespoon of soy sauce
Two tablespoons of vegetable oil
One quarter cup of sugar
Four skinless salmon fillets, at least one inch thick
Method
Start by whisking the miso, sake, soy sauce, oil, and sugar. Rub the mixture over every surface of the salmon fillets.
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Transfer to a plastic zipper-lock bag or sealable container. For “best results,” marinate for about 30 minutes or up to two days.
Marinating gives the advantage of “slightly better flavour penetration and moisture retention” in the finished product, but it’s by no means a necessary step.
Then wipe off all but a thin layer of the marinade and place your salmon on a sheet of foil on top of a tray.
Why foil? Well, not only does it make for ridiculously simple clean up, it also acts as a built-in protector.
If you notice your fish browning in one section faster than the other, just fold up the foil and use it as a shield while the rest cooks.
Next, preheat your toaster oven on high or a regular oven to 180 degrees. Cook until the top surface is well charred and salmon is barely warm in the centre, about five minutes, using the foil to protect any areas that threaten to burn.
