Flying fish!

Copper River salmon from Alaska are on sale now here in the Pacific Northwest. The season is brief. The fish is expensive. But the fish from these pristine Alaskan waters taste more flavorful than any farmed varieties.

Bake up some salmon and top with this simple sauce.

Mix equal parts of:

• Soy sauce
• Mirin

Soy sauce should contain just water, soybeans, salt, maybe alcohol to preserve freshness, and maybe wheat (for shoyu soy sauce).

Mirin is a kind of sweet rice wine "similar to sake but with lower alcohol content" (Wikipedia).


I buy Eden brand, made with water, rice, salt and koji (a natural fermentation agent). You can get it in health food stores and maybe asian markets. Other brands, like popular soy sauce maker Kikkoman, are just glucose syrup, so check the labels.

A bit of this simple mixture brightens the flavor of fish (salmon, trout, scallops). I put some cornmeal on scallops or trout and bake covered with a few Tbs of water. I remove the pyrex bakeware's cover halfway through the cooking.

According to the Eden Mirin label, "shoyu soy sauce and mirin are the right and left hands of Japanese cuisine."

I think this mixture tastes good because it is both salty and sweet, two of our (5?) primary tastes. If it tastes familiar, it's teriyaki if you add some garlic, ginger and sugar.

Everyone has different reactions to salt and sugar, so check the labels and use your individual discretion.  ¶ 4:53 PM