Slow-Roasted Red-Wine-Lacquered Salmon Fillet

Hello all!  After  week’s vacation in Jamaica I’m back to the cold and the blogosphere.  Sadly no Jamaica related posts… it really wasn’t a take pictures of your food kind of vacation, although I did do some good eating.  I ate a ton of fresh-caught, never frozen fish, locally grown yams, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, sugar cane and many other things.  Eating “local” in Jamaica is so much more delicious than eating local in Toronto in February.    Even the local “fast food” chains have better fast food grub than we have here.  I’m not trying to move to Jamaica anytime soon but I could definitely get down with the food situation.

Anyways… as you know I always have salmon in the freezer.  We buy the giant packs of salmon at Costco, portion it and freeze.  It makes life easy because you can always quickly whip up something with a salmon fillet.  As per usual I was trolling on Epicurious when I came across this recipe from Gourmet (RIP).  What intrigued me here was the use of red wine and the idea of “lacquering” the fish.

This was one of those meals that seemed a bit cursed.  For some reason I had it in my head that mirin was rice wine vinegar… it totally isn’t!  Of course I go to make the recipe and realize this.  I didn’t want to go to the LCBO to get some mirin so figured I’d use some rice wine vinegar mixed with water and sugar.  Of course AFTER doing this I searched the internet for substitutions and everyone said to not use vinegar, oh well.  The first time I tried to make the sauce it ended up burning.  When I say burning I mean the bottom of the pan was covered in hard, black stuff.  My apartment smelled AWFUL!  Needless to say I ended up having something else for dinner that night.

The next night I tried again.  This time using a sherry + sugar combination for the mirin.  Luckily there was no burnt pots.  The results were pretty good.  It was definitely a different way to prepare salmon and was pretty easy.  I love the way it looked when it was ready.  It truly looked like it had been lacquered!  I’ll definitely give this another time and may even spring and buy me some mirin to see how this should really taste.  I served this with sweet potato gnocchi and broccoli, although I can see it being delicious with some potatoes.

Slow-Roasted Red-Wine-Lacquered Salmon Fillet
1 (4-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
1 cup soy sauce
2 cups dry red wine
1 1/3 cups mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (4 1/2-pound) salmon fillet (preferably wild king; about 1 1/2 inches at thickest point), small bones removed

Accompaniment: lime wedges

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 225°F.

Finely grate ginger on small holes of a box grater into a fine-mesh sieve, then set sieve over a bowl and press on ginger to extract 2 teaspoons juice. Bring soy sauce, wine, mirin, brown sugar, and ginger juice to a boil in a 3- to 3 1/2-quart heavy saucepan. Reduce heat to moderate and briskly simmer, stirring occasionally, until syrupy and reduced to about 1 cup, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, then quick-chill by setting bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Reserve 1/2 cup glaze in a small bowl for brushing after roasting.

Line a 17- by 12-inch heavy shallow baking pan with foil and coat foil with oil (1 tablespoon).

Arrange salmon, skin side down, diagonally in pan, then spoon about 2 tablespoons glaze over salmon, spreading it evenly with back of spoon. Let stand 5 minutes, then spoon and spread another 2 tablespoons glaze over salmon.

Roast 15 minutes. Remove from oven and glaze again (use a clean spoon each time), then roast 10 minutes more. Repeat glazing and continue to roast until fish is just cooked through (opaque), 10 to 20 minutes more (35 to 45 minutes total, depending on thickness of fish; check frequently after 35 minutes). Transfer with 2 wide metal spatulas to a platter, then coat with a final layer of reserved glaze (about 2 tablespoons) using a clean spoon. Serve remaining glaze on the side if desired.

Cooks’ note:
Glaze can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before using.

Gourmet
June 2007