Ingredients
- 1 pound salmon fillet, center cut, skin off
- ½ cup mirin
- ½ cup water
- 1 Tbs sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- ¼ cup ginger julienne
- 1 tsp. Szechwan peppercorns
Smoking Mixture
- 1 cup long grain rice
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 cup oolong tea or black lychee tea
- 1 piece aluminum foil
- 2 wet cloths
Ginger Hoisin Sauce
- 1 4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
- 2 Tbs. rice-wine vinegar
- 1 Tbs. Hoisin sauce
- 2 scallions, chopped (1/4 cup)
Salad
- 6 cups washed and drained spinach leaves
- 1 small unpeeled cucumber sliced in thin rounds
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- segments 3 large oranges
- ¼ cup toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Place the salmon in a small hotel pan or baking dish.
- In a bowl, mix together mirin, water, sugar and salt, stir until dissolved. Add ginger and peppercorns to liquid. Pour brine on salmon and marinate for 1 hour.
- Pull salmon out of brine and place in a bamboo steamer.
- In a wok lined with foil add the rice, sugar and tea. Mix well and turn wok on medium heat. When mixture starts to smolder, place bamboo steamer on top. Seal the seam between the bamboo steamer and wok with wet cloths. Turn wok down to low and smoke for 15 minutes.
- Turn wok off and let smoke another 15 minutes.
- Grate ginger on the smallest holes of a box grater. To extract the juice, press the grated ginger in a fine sieve set over a small bowl or squeeze it in a piece of cheesecloth. (You should have about 1 tablespoon ginger juice). Discard pulp.
- Stir vinegar, Hoisin sauce and scallions into the ginger juice.
- Toss spinach leaves with cucumber, tomatoes, oranges and walnuts.
- Place salmon over spinach salad and coat with ginger Hoisin dressing.