JAPANESE MISO SALMON SALAD RECIPE

Recent research carried out by Bord Bia shows that Irish people like eating fish when dining out however as an island nation we are surprisingly not confident cooking fresh fish at home. Bord Bia has launched a campaign to encourage Irish people to buy more fresh fish and as part of this campaign they posted simple fish recipes and advice from celebrity chef Martin Shanahan on their website.

Here are some of my tips for buying fresh fish: 

• Try to buy fish from your local fishmonger
• Don't be afraid to ask your fishmonger to fillet, debone or skin your fish
• Fresh fish should have a nice fresh sea smell and not a foul smell. It should look shiny, have bright eyes, red gills and any liquid on the fish should be clear
• Ask your fishmonger lots of questions to educate yourself about fish (e.g. when was the fish caught, where does it come from, is it wild or farmed fish etc)

MISO SALMON SALAD

When cooking fresh fish it can easily become dry and overcooked. By cooking fish in a sauce it will become tender and moist.

INGREDIENTS: 
2 x salmon fillet
Few large handfuls of spinach salad leaves
Few handfuls of cherry tomatoes
Roasted sesame seeds (to garnish)

For the miso sauce
120ml cold water
2 tbsp miso
2tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
3 tbsp sake (Japanese rice wine) 

Serves 2

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place all ingredients for the miso sauce in a medium sized saucepan, then using a whisk/fork mix until there's no lumps. 
2. Put on medium heat and after a few minutes it will start to simmer. Let it simmer for a few minutes. 
3. Gently place the salmon fillets in the saucepan side by side with the skin facing up.
4. Cut out a circle of  grease proof paper the size of the saucepan and use this to cover the salmon fillets. You can use a lid to cover the saucepan if you don't have grease proof paper. 
5. Continue to simmer for another 15 minutes and then set aside.
6. Place the spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes and salmon fillets in a large salad bowl. 
7. Using your hand or a large spoon break up the salmon fillets into chunks.
8. Just before serving pour the miso sauce over the salad ingredients and mix well.
9. Sprinkle roasted sesame seeds over the salad.