CAUTION: This dish can easily over-power any wine you pair it with, and the sauce can easily overpower the salmon!
I've adjusted the ingredients to allow the salmon to remain in the limelight, but you may want to adjust it further to suit your own taste.
Ingredients (6 servings)
- 2 - 2 1/4 pounds Salmon fillet*
- 1/2 Cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 Cup rice wine vinegar
- 1/3 Cup lemon juice (from ~ 2 medium lemons)
- 1 Tbsp hoisin sauce or oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp chili paste
- 2 Tbsp minced ginger
- 1 Clove garlic, minced fine
- 1 1/2 Cups panko bread crumbs in a mixing bowl
- Aluminum foil or parchment paper
Procedure
Heat oven to 500, like all the way hot!
Line an 8 x 12 inch pan with the foil, and coat lightly with olive oil before laying salmon skin-side down. Whisk together all the ingredients but the breadcrumbs.
Pour 1/3 of the liquid over the salmon and the remaining liquid into the bowl with the breadcrumbs. Pour this mixture onto the salmon, lifting fish to allow run-off to seep underneath. Allow to rest for 15 minutes.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how well you prefer your fish.
Serve with wilted greens such as spinach sautéed in olive oil, anchovy paste and garlic, or bok choy steamed in soy sauce.
Wine Pairings - a light, cool-climate pinot noir, chillable reds such as Pineau d'Aunis, Schiava, Valpolicella or Chiavanesca or an aromatic white such as a Riesling, Vermentino, Gewurztraminer or Pinot Blanc. But the best pairing may just be with a crisp rosé of Grenache.
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*A Note On Buying Salmon
Salmon is one of the more controversial fish you can buy these days. Mention "farmed salmon" to a foodie and you're in for a lecture - the prevailing wisdom being that it's bad for the environment as well as the long-term health of the species. The farmed salmon crossbreed with and weaken the wild salmon population, while the excess food pellets fall to the ocean floor beneath the many-acre net zone, rotting and killing off the plant and ocean life there.
And honestly, the farmed salmon are huge. But increasingly, inland aqua farmers are improving their animal husbandry techniques, as you can see on the latest version of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch site, where a little browsing will bring you to the phrase - "Salmon farmed on land in “closed” or “contained” farms is a viable alternative that points the way to a more environmentally-friendly future for salmon farming."
One of our favorites is the sustainably farmed salmon from Scotland's Loch Duart - it can be nearly as pricey as the wild-caught salmon, but we choose to make the sacrifice despite these tight economic times, as we figure it's an investment in our daughter's future.
