~ Braised Teriyaki Salmon Head ~
Teriyaki sauce is often used in Japanese cuisine. As a home chef living the cosmopolitan lifestyle, I often ended up with fusion cooking whereby a recipe may have a mix of more than one country or ethnic origin. It varies from a mix of Chinese & Japanese flavours, Singaporean & European flavours, Malay & Indian flavours etc. Sometimes, I wonder if having no proper base in cooking style is what others would do too. In this recipe with teriyaki sauce, I have added sesame oil, ginger and garlic for the salmon braise. It is a Japanese sauce with some element of Chinese cooking. Some Singaporeans call this “anyhow cook”.
As salmon is naturally rich in omega-3 fatty acids, I never cook them with additional oil. I added little sesame oil deliberately to add flavour and fragrant from an exclusive sesame oil that I have recently sourced all the way from Penang. This sesame oil brand has been around for 160 years and counting! They do export the general version of sesame oil here but this one that I risked bringing back in a 600ml glass bottle, having my suitcase bandaged with “Fragile” straps. It is an exclusive version which is made from brown sesame seeds rather than white sesame seeds. I can’t resist the superb smell from this brown sesame oil. Hence, I bought home and I could not resist adding a bearable teaspoon to this recipe.
Another ingredient that I do not use as frequent but have made an exception in this recipe is the cooking wine. I come from a more conservative family where we do not cook with alcohol for health reason. Due to the influence from my mum’s cooking, it simply is not a habit in me adding alcohol to my cooking. More so, I am uncomfortable with it as I am cooking for a pre-schooler and I am not quite ready to expose my little one to alcohol interference in her development yet. However, in this recipe, I have decided to just let loose for once since my little one is coming to 3.5 years old now.
If you have a 2 years old toddler at home, you probably should not add any alcohol at all to your cooking as alcohol may impair liver development of toddlers this age, since their livers are not fully developed yet at this stage. My mum still does not cook with alcohol for the sake of my dad’s health since he was once life threatened by Hepatitis illness when I was little. So, be wary with the decision of adding alcohol to your cooking done for the young and the old at home for health maintenance.
Braised Teriyaki Salmon Head Recipe (Serves 2 adults & 1 pre-schooler) :
- 2 Salmon Head (cleaned & pad dried with kitchen towels)
- 1 Salmon Fillet, approximately 120 grams (deboned)
- 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
- 3 cloves Garlic (mashed)
- 1 inch Ginger (sliced)
- 1 teaspoon Brown Sesame Oil
- 3 tablespoons Teriyaki Sauce
- 3 tablespoons Korean or Japanese Cooking Wine
- 1 stalk Chinese Parsley
- 1 stalk Spring Onion
- 50ml Water
AMC Healthy Cooking Method :
- Season salmon heads and fillet with salt and pepper for 20 minutes.
- Add garlic chunks and ginger slices into an AMC 28cm Hotpan Unit. Preheat the Pan unit with Navigenio heat level “3” up to 50°C or “Meat Window”. Use Audiotherm as an indicator by turning it on, place on lid knob/Visiotherm, indicating 50°C or “Meat Window”.
- When Audiotherm beeps indicating readiness for cooking, turn off both Navigenio and Audiotherm. Add sesame oil followed by all salmon heads and fillet, the greens, Teriyaki sauce, cooking wine and water into Pan unit.
- Cover pan with lid. Switch on Navigenio to automatic “A”. Turn on Audiotherm, place on lid knob/Visiotherm on lid, indicating 80°C or “Carrot Window” and set 10 minutes to cook.
- Serve with warm rice and waterless vegetables of choice.
Clean and season with salt and pepper.
Add garlic & ginger into the Hotpan unit to gently brown while preheating the Pan unit.
Preheat Pan unit up to 50°C with garlic & ginger in it with Navigenio on heat level “3”.
Add sesame oil to slightly brown the garlic & ginger.
Place fish into the Hotpan unit to brown.
Add chinese parsley and spring onion by the stalk on the side of the fish. This is for the general aroma of the braise pot.
Add Teriyaki sauce by drizzling them onto the fish.
Add Korean cooking wine by drizzling them onto the fish too.
By now you will be able to see the Omega rich oil sizzled on the Pan unit from the salmon parts as the heat source continues. Add water for melt down!
Cover Pan unit with lid and turn Navigenio on automatic mode to braise for 10 minutes.
Here’s the “calmly” braised salmon fish heads and fillet.