Baked Salmon with Nori and Wasabi mashed potatoes

This recipe is a ‘work in progress’ and I continue to tinker around with. I served it on Thursday night to some friends and it was very well received so I thought I would post it up.

Ingredients (serves 4):

4 salmon fillets, skin on.
2 full sized sheets of nori (japanese dried seaweed)
200ml teriyaki sauce
1 tsp sesame seeds

2 large leeks, washed and cut into thin rings
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Mashed potatoes (as per this recipe)
1 tsp wasabi paste (or more)

Put the salmon in a freezer bag, pour in the teriyaki sauce, seal and leave for at least two hours.

In a large frying pan heat 1 tbsp olive oil over a medium heat, throw in the leeks and garlic and saute until they are a little soft, about 5 minutes.

Once cooked tip them into a baking dish and spread them evenly over the bottom.

Cut each of the nori sheets in half and using a bowl of cold water dip them in for 1 or 2 seconds to soften them slightly. Lay flat on a board, remove salmon from marinade (reserve the liquid) and place one salmon filet on each. Gently roll the nori around the fish. Place all four fillets in a line on top of the leeks and sprinkle the sesame seeds all over the top of the fillets.

Heat oven to 200C/400F and cook salmon for 20-25 minutes.

In the meantime pour the reserved teriyaki marinade into a small saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce to about one-quarter of volume until it is quite thick and syrupy. If you also want to add 50ml of mirin or some dry sherry to give it a bit of a lift please go right ahead!

Once the fish is in the oven make the mashed potatoes and add the wasabi along with the butter, philly, cream etc. Taste, add more wasabi if necessary.

I have used wasabi paste from a tube as that was all I could find at the time but it is not as ‘hot’ as the stuff made from a powder. I used almost the whole tube for ten people though one night and it was still very mild. If you are using the powder make up a paste with an equal amount of cold water. One heaped tsp of paste made from powdered wasabi is enough for four people, you want just a hint in the mash, not a sinus clearing explosion!

Spoon mash into the middle of four warmed plates, spoon leeks on top of the mash and then place one salmon fillet on top of each. Drizzle the thickened teriyaki sauce around and serve immediately.

It looks fabulous, the nori keeps the salmon lovely and moist so it tastes great and as you can see it is so very, very easy.