Salmon Nanbanzuke

A fabulous recipe by Harumi from her cookbook "Everyday Harumi"

We love this dish, I can't recommend it enough. Crispy fish in a sharp but sweet, light, tangy marinade, delicious. The preparation does take time as there is alot of chopping and peeling but it's worth the effort. It's also a great dish to make if you're having friends over as you need to make it in advance so that the fish can absorb the marinade so all the work is done ahead of time

For 4 people:

100g celery

80g carrots

2 small red chillies

15g ginger

100g onion

4 salmon fillets

1 lime

Plain flour for coating the fish

Salt and pepper

Sunflower oil

200ml dashi

75ml soy sauce

100ml rice vinegar

4 tablespoons caster sugar

1/2-1 lemon juiced

First of all prepare the vegetables: peel and rinse the carrots and de-string and clean the celery. Julienne both the carrots and the celery into 5cm strips. Peel the ginger and cut it into similarly sized strips. De-seed the chilli and slice into rings. Peel and slice the onions. You can keep these all together in one bowl

Now make the Nanbanzuke sauce: Mix the dashi, soy sauce rice vinegar and lemon juice in a container that you will ultimately add the vegetables and fish to. Stir well to combine. I buy my dashi from Waitrose , I will try again to make it from scratch but for now the Waitrose one does perfectly fine.

Next onto the salmon. You can prepare it the way that Harumi recommends which involves deep frying and is delicious, or, if you want to be a little healthier you can cook the whole salmon fillet in a tinfoil parcel in the oven then cut it into chunks and submerge into the marinade and this works perfectly well too. You miss the crunch but avoid the frying.

If you want the crunch then cut the salmon into approx 4cm square pieces and toss it in a mix of flour and salt and pepper. Using a deep frying pan heat enough oil to cover the salmon, when it it hot add the salmon pieces and deep fry them. Keep turning them over to make sure they're crispy on all sides. Take the cooked pieces out and drain on a piece of kitchen roll.

Now add the fish and the vegetables to nanbanzuke sauce, make sure you add the fish whilst it's still hot as it will absorb the marinade better. Let the flavours combine for at least 30 minutes and serve. When serving the fish make sure to include a spoonful of the vegetables and slices of lime. If you make it let me know what you think!!

Everyday Harumi