Salmon Marinated in Nanban Sauce (Le Creuset recipe)

 

Salmon marinated with Nanban Sauce

Since I recently splurged on the classic round Le Creuset 20 cm casserole pot, I've been more motivated to cook more and make use of my kitchenware. I browsed the recipe section of the Le Creuset website and came across several dishes that I was excited to try, including this Salmon Marinated in Nanban Sauce which looked both delicious and healthy (hello omega-3!) and easy to prepare. My friend who is of Japanese background once made nanban chicken for one of our gatherings so I was keen to try this salmon version. You may also have come across Nanban sauce on the menus of some Japanese restaurants too. 

The following recipe is from Le Creuset website. I've added extra comments on how we tweaked it to suit our pantry.  The above photo is from our first time cooking this dish. I've also included the original photo from Le Creuset down below as a suggestion on how I might want to serve and plate up the dish in the future :)

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Recipe from Le Creuset website: Nanbanzuke is marinated fried fish in a delicious citrus, soy sauce-based vinaigrette. It is a deep-fried dish but the Nanban sauce gives it a light and refreshing taste. A great summer dish that can be made in in advance, it can even be served cold. Nanban means foreign and this dish is originally from Portugal and Spain, brought to Japan in the 17th century.

Picture from Le Creuset website - serving suggestion

SERVES: 4

cooking time: 30 minutes 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 carrot, julienned 
• 1 – 2 red onion, sliced
• 4 salmon fillets
• A pinch of salt
• Corn flour (for dusting)

Nanban Sauce

• 200ml kombu dashi (Stock) (10cm x 10cm dried kelp + 500ml water)  [My edit: used vegetable/chicken stock]
• 3 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 100ml rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 4 tablespoons sugar [My edit: if you don't like your dishes overly sweet or with too much sugar, start with 1 tablespoon sugar and go from there. We used 2 tablespoons sugar and found it sweet enough]
• 2/3 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons yuzu juice or lemon juice [My edit: lemon juice seemed to work fine]

To Garnish

• Chopped chives or spring onion

METHOD

To make the kombu dashi, wipe the kombu/kelp with a clean cloth (the kombu/kelp shouldn’t be washed). Put the water in a casserole and soak the kombu for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Heat it up slowly until the water comes to a boil, take out the kombu and remove the stock from the heat and put to one side. [My edit: I did not manage to find kombu at our local Woolworths supermarket, so substituted with vegetable stock]. 

Slice the onions very thinly and cut the carrots into juliennes. Place all the marinade sauce ingredients; kombo dashi, sugar, mirin, rice vinegar and yuzu juice into a pot and bring to just before the boil, then add the sliced carrot and onion. Pour the sauce into a deep-sided dish. Lightly sprinkle a pinch of salt over the salmon and leave for 10 minutes, then pat dry with kitchen paper or cloth.

Cut the salmon into 3cm cubes and dust with the corn flour. Deep fry the salmon at 170 degrees in the Le Creuset 30cm Signature Buffet Casserole for 3-5 minutes, then remove from the oil and place directly into the Nanban sauce. [My edit: we pan fried the salmon for same amount of time in a normal fry pan, and it turned out beautifully tender and moist on the inside, though perhaps may not have that crunchy batter had we deep fried it.]

Let marinate for at least a couple hours (some Japanese chefs will leave it for up to a few days). For the garnish, sprinkle chopped chives or spring onions on top. [My edit: We were too hungry so skipped the couple hours of marinating time and serve immediately after cooking. We did have plenty for leftover packed lunches and it was probably a little more tastier the next day after some marinading time overnight.]

Hope you like this dish and if you do end up trying it out at home, do leave a comment down below and let me know how it went!