46 Salmon Teriyaki with Kasha

Do you know the dilemma: am I hungry or not? Well, I am referring to a situation when you know you should eat something but you know eating something heavy will kill you. It happened to me a while ago and I came up with the idea of cooking teriyaki salmon with barley groats (kasha) and lentils. And that was it. Light, healthy and yummy. All you need for a light dinner.

Salmon Teriyaki with Kasha

INGREDIENTS

4 salmon fillets with skin
salt
black pepper, freshly ground
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sake

for the seasoning
2 tbsp sake (or dry cherry)
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp soy sauce

HOW TO MAKE?
1. Mix all the ingredients for the seasoning together, until well combined. You can heat them up in a microwave for few seconds.
2. Wash the salmon and dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and pepper, on both sides.

3. Sprinkle each salmon with flour on both sides. The salmon should be coated in a thin layer of flour.

4. Add the olive oil and the butter to the frying pan. Melt the butter, but be careful not to burn it. When you feel like your frying pan is too hot, you can remove it from the heat for a bit or just reduce the heat.

5. Add the salmon fillets to the pan, skinless side up. Cook it for 3-5 minutes, depend how thick your salmon fillets are. The skin should be golden brown.

6. Add sake and cover your pan with a lid. Let it steam for about 3-5 minutes, checking if the salmon is cooked properly before removing it from the pan. When done, take it out of the pan and set aside.

7. Add the seasoning to the pan and bring it to a boil. When boiling, add salmon to the pan again, pouring the sauce over the salmon from time to time. *
8. When you see your sauce get thicker, your dish is done. Turn off the heat and serve salmon immediately. You can serve it with rice, like I did. **

*if your salmon fillets were quite thick (like mine were), the cooking time from the recipe won’t be enough to cook it through. The trick is, if you keep the salmon on the pan for longer, it’ll become too soft and fall apart. What I did, I popped it to the oven (which I previously preheated) for few minutes and that saved my salmon ;)