Description
In this comforting Japanese dish, hot seasoned dashi is poured over rice topped with broiled salmon, edamame, and pickled vegetables.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For dashi
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup bonito flakes
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon mirin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
For pickled vegetables
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 3 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups grated or julienne cut carrot
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced seedless cucumber (such as Japanese or Persian cucumber)
For salmon
- 2 (8-ounce) salmon fillets
- Kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For serving
- 3–4 cups hot cooked rice
- Cooked shelled edamame (see Note 1)
- Furikake (see Note 2)
Instructions
For dashi
- Steep. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil over medium-high heat. Turn off heat, add bonito flakes, and cover. Steep dashi for 15 minutes. While the dashi steeps, make the pickled veggies to save time.
- Strain. Strain the dashi through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl. Reserve the saucepan.
- Season. To the strained dashi, add soy sauce, mirin, and salt. Stir until salt is dissolved. Pour the finished dashi back into the saucepan and keep it warm over very low heat.
For pickled veggies
- Make brine. In a medium bowl, stir rice wine vinegar, sugar, and salt together until sugar is dissolved.
- Add vegetables. Add carrots and cucumber to vinegar mixture. Toss together until vegetables are evenly mixed in.
- Set aside. Let vegetables stand at room temperature while preparing other components, stirring occasionally.
For salmon
- Prep oven and pan. Turn on broiler to high heat. Line a small rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Prep salmon. Place salmon fillets skin side down on prepared pan. Season salmon with salt and brush with olive oil.
- Cook salmon. Broil salmon 6 to 8 inches from heat until salmon is cooked through, about 8-12 minutes. Flake the salmon with a fork. Set aside.
For serving
- Fill bowls. Add rice to serving bowls then top with flaked salmon, edamame, and pickled vegetables.
- Add dashi. Pour in desired amount of warm dashi (I pour in enough to cover 3/4 of the rice to start). Sprinkle with furikake. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Microwaveable steam-in-the bag shelled edamame is the easiest way to go. However, when that is not available, I cook the edamame and make the dashi at the same time using the same saucepan and strainer to save time and cut down on dirty dishes.
First, boil extra water (enough for dashi and edamame) and then measure out what you need for the dashi into a bowl (I use a metal measuring cup like a ladle for this). Add bonito flakes to the bowl and cover with a plate to steep.
To the saucepan (which should have the extra water in it), add desired amount of edamame. When edamame cooks to desired tenderness, strain edamame and put cooked edamame into another bowl.
Wipe out saucepan and strain steeped dashi into saucepan. Proceed with seasoning the dashi and keeping warm on stovetop.
- Furikake is a savory Japanese seasoning blend that usually consists of sesame seeds, nori, and salt. Although it is not required for this recipe, I think it really enhances the overall flavor of the dish.
- To cut down on prep time, you can substitute the pickled vegetables with store-bought pickled daikon which is available at most Asian grocery stores.
