Teriyaki Salmon

Cook time: about 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

This simple Teriyaki Salmon is sure to please even the most discerning dinner guest. Fresh, seasonal vegetables can be added to the dish 5 minutes before finish to steam until tender atop the salmon and sauce. Recipe adapted from Chicken Vegetable Teriyaki in Feeding the Young Athlete by Cynthia Lair (Moon Smile Press, 2002)

• 1/3 cup tamari or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger root
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup water
• 12 ounces wild caught Alaskan salmon fillet
• 2 – 3 tablespoons high heat oil, such as high-oleic safflower or peanut oil
• 1 – 2 teaspoons arrowroot mixed into ¼ cup water

1. In a small saucepan, combine tamari, ginger root, honey, brown sugar, garlic, and water. Heat on low until sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.
2. Portion salmon into 2 or 3 pieces. Place salmon, skin side up, in a shallow glass baking dish and cover with 1/4 – 1/3 cup of the teriyaki sauce. Place baking dish in refrigerator to allow salmon to marinate for about 30 minutes.
3. Slowly reduce remaining teriyaki sauce on low heat while the salmon marinates.
4. In a large skillet heat oil on medium high. Gently pat dry the salmon filets and place skin side down onto the hot oiled skillet. Sear for 1 minute on each side, then temporarily remove from heat.
5. Add any remaining marinade to the reduced teriyaki sauce and remove from heat. Whisk arrowroot slurry into the teriyaki sauce, then pour sauce over the sizzling salmon. Put a lid on the skillet, turn heat down to medium low and simmer for 8 minutes per inch of fish thickness*. Sauce will thicken as the fish cooks. When fish is cooked through, remove from heat and serve immediately.

Serving suggestion: serve each portion of salmon over ½ cup cooked rice, pouring remaining teriyaki sauce over the fish and/or rice.

* The rule for cooking fish is 10 minutes per inch of thickness (using the thickest part of the fish to measure). Since the fish in this recipe has already been cooked for 2 minutes, the remaining cooking time will be 8 minutes per inch of thickness.