Simple Pan Seared Salmon with Soy Ginger Marinade

Does this recipe sound familiar? Regular readers of Cooking Chat might recall I recently posted Pan Seared Mahi-Mahi with Orange Soy Marinade, which was really my [successful!] attempt to convert my go-to approach for salmon over to mahi-mahi, which I don't cook nearly as often.

This is one of those recipes that is such a basic part of our menu here that I hadn't thought to post it until someone tweeted awhile back looking for a simple salmon recipe. And this cooking method is worth sharing. Ordering salmon a couple times at top-notch restaurants taught me that salmon (and other fish) is at its best when it is cooked just right, and that great care must be taken to avoid overcooking and drying it out. I'd gotten that down pretty well for myself on the grill, but it was a recipe in Barbara Lynch's Stir: Mixing It Up In The Italian Tradition that taught me the pan-searing method here. Alas, grilling season seems far away still given our early March weather forecast in New England! Learning how to pan sear salmon and other fish is key to enjoying year round in these parts. So here you go, with a word of thanks to Chef Barbara!

10 to 12 ozs wild salmon fillet

For the marinade
1/4 cup soy sauce, preferably lower sodium
1 tbsp canola or similar oil
1 tsp brown rice vinegar
tsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
generous pitch ginger

Take the salmon out of the fridge before you get ready to put the marinade together so it starts coming closer to room temperature. Combine the marinade ingredients, in a mixing bowl. Rinse and pat the salmon dry, then place it in a large bowl or plastic bag. Pour about 2/3 of the marinade over this fish. Set the remainder of the marinade aside. Turn the fish over gently a couple times so that it becomes well coated with the marinade. Let the fish marinade for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking. Unlike a marinade for something like steak tips, where the goal is to tenderize the meat over an extended period, you don't want to marinade fish like salmon for long, or it will get too salty. A short soak in it gives it a nice flavor and leads to nice juicy fish.

this is how you want the skin to look upon flipping it.

After the salmon has marinaded for 10 minutes, spray a skillet with cooking oil and heat the pan on medium high. When the pan is good and hot, remove the fish from the marinade and gently shake off some of the excess marinade--but you'll want to keep some to cook in with the fish. Place the fish skin side down, and cook for 4 minutes without moving the fish. The skin will be getting nice and crispy underneath. After 4 minutes, use a spatula to turn the fish over. Seriously, set that time for 4 minutes. In testing this recipe for the post, I did 5 one time and that was a bit overcooked!

Turn the fish back to the skin side one more time. Spoon a couple tablespoons of the reserved marinade over the fish after turning it, and let it cook in for about 2 minutes. At this point, gently cut open the fish at a thick spot to check for doneness. The outside of the fillet should be a lighter orange, but still have plenty of the deep, dark orange inside, as it will continue cooking when you remove from the heat. The actual time will depend on the thickness of your fillet. When the fish has reached this point of doneness, remove from the pan to a plate, and loosely tent with foil. Let it rest a couple of minutes, letting it cook a bit more. The skin will sometimes come off during the cooking process. If it doesn't, it can be easily pulled off with your fingers or a knife prior to serving.

Serve the salmon, offering the reserved marinade* at the table. In my opinion, ours didn't actually need more, having cooked in just the right amount. Our eight year old did request a bit of extra soy. He loves this recipe, one reason we have it so much. When you get an eight year old gobbling up something this healthy and easy to make, you're going to be cooking it a lot!

Wine Pairing: Salmon just begs to be served with Pinot Noir; although there usually isn't begging required to get me to open a bottle of Pinot. I usual go for wild salmon from Alaska, so it seems natural to stay in the Pacific Northwest. Again, not much arm twisting required to have me go for Oregon Pinot Noir. Most recently, we enjoyed this dish with a bottle of 2011 Soter North Valley Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley. Definitely a very good wine and nice pairing. This recipe can easily by made on a busy weeknight, but this Pinot is more a weekend type wine by our standards! (don't recall exact price, $30ish I believe). We often grab the Bouchard & Fils pinot from France or the Hahn pinot from California when looking for a pinot to enjoy with salmon midweek.

*Note: When I refer to putting "reserved marinade" on food at the table, this is marinade that was set aside before combining with the fish. The portion that the fish actually marinaded in gets discarded. You don't want to be serving liquid that marinaded raw fish or meat in terms of food safety.