Soy Glazed Salmon with Sesame Noodles and Bok Choy Recipe

The year’s focus on eating healthier continues right along with a renewed focus on fusion cooking, my favorite means of taking flavors and textures to new heights.  Our weather has been unseasonably warm and the market had the most beautiful baby bok choy, so I had to find something that would go well with it and salmon just seemed to fit the bill.  Add some pan fried noodles and not only do you have yourself a wonderfully healthy and filling meal, but one you can feel good about eating.  no compromises here!

The inspiration for the salmon came from an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s F-Word, but only loosely, as I couldn’t remember exactly what he’d done to his salmon, just that he’d used soy to glaze the fish, which sounded wonderful.  The rest of the dish was whipped up on a whim with ingredients I had on hand, but the combination was perfect for a firly warm evening and a lovely meal with my wife.

The recipe may sound complicated, but in actuality it doesn’t get much simpler than this.  There are only three primary ingredients and a few accompaniments that can be found at nearly any supermarket in the Asian section, so even if all you have access to is a BigScaryMegaMart, you should be able to get everything needed for this recipe in a single trip and for just a few dollars.  It really is worth it, trust me.

Ingredients:

• 2 – 6 oz wild Coho salmon fillets (12 oz salmon fillet, cut into 2 portions)
• 2 packets ramen or somen noodles
• 1 serving miso soup base
• 8 small baby bok choy
• 2-3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp oyster flavored sauce
• 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• salt and pepper to taste
• Peanut oil, for sauteing and stir frying

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Bring a 3 quart saucepan to a rolling boil.  Add miso soup mix and combine.  Cook noodles in boiling water for just over 2 minutes or until loose, but not completely cooked through.  Drain and rinse under cold water.  Set aside.

Season both sides of salmon fillets with salt and pepper.  Add 1 tbsp peanut oil to a hot oven-proof skillet over medium heat.  Place salmon in skillet skin side down and cook approximately 3 minutes or until salmon appears opaque nearly half-way through.  Flip salmon, add soy sauce to skillet and swirl to coat.  Place skillet in oven. (For no longer than 8 minutes!)

While salmon finishes cooking, heat a stir fry pan, wok or nonstick skillet over high heat.  Add 2 tbsp peanut oil to pan.  Stir fry bok choy approximately 2 minutes, or until just browned in places.  Remove from pan and place in an oven-proof bow.  Place in oven with salmon to keep warm.

Add more oil to stir fry pan if necessary.  Add noodles to pan, tossing constantly until heated through. Add 1 tsp sesame seeds and sesame oil to pan and toss to combine.  Continue tossing frequently for an additional 2 minutes.

Place approximately 3/4 of one packet of noodles in a mound in the center of a serving plate (I made extra for the kiddo).  Add oyster sauce to bok choy and toss.  arrange bok choy around noodles on plate.  Place salmon fillets glazed side up over noodles and sprinkle with sesame seeds.Serve immediately.

Share and Enjoy!

What I would have done differently if I had thought of it at the time:

This salmon is nearly perfect, but according to my wife, it needs just a little something to make it spot-on.  I’ll be revisiting this without the noodles and see what I can do to give it the little nudge it needs to be signature-dish ready.  Even having said that, I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this dish as-is to any of my friends or family.  It’s exceptional, even if it isn’t exactly the most Weight-Watchers Friendly at 10 points with the noodles.  But really, who cares about the points on this one!

Links to other recipes like this:

• Salmon with Soy-Ginger glaze and Udon Noodles, from What Did You Eat?
• Salmon Fried Rice, from Lydia at The Perfect Pantry
• Salmon with Soy-Honey Glaze and Wasabi, from Love and Olive Oil