Miso salmon with smacked cucumber

Smacking cucumber may sound a little wild, but trust me, you'll end up with a great condiment that can sit in the fridge for a day or two. It's a great match with sticky brown rice and miso salmon.

Credit: Donal's Meals in Minutes

• serves

  2

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 2 skinless salmon fillets (about 120 g each)
• 125 g brown sticky rice
• 1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted, for garnish

Miso marinade

• 3 tsp red miso paste
• 3 tsp (15 ml) rice wine
• 3 tsp (15 ml) tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1-2 spring onion, very thinly sliced
• 2 tsp sesame oil

Smacked cucumber salad

• ½ cucumber
• 25 ml rice wine vinegar
• 3 tsp caster sugar
• ¼ head wombok (Chinese cabbage), very thinly sliced
• 100 g beansprouts

Marinating time: 30 minutes.

Instructions

1. To make the smacked cucumber salad, place the the cucumber half on a chopping board and smash several times with a rolling pin, then cut in half, scoop out the seeds and cut into thin batons.
2. Place the rice wine vinegar and sugar in a serving bowl and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumber batons, Chinese cabbage and beansprouts and toss to coat. Cover with cling film and set aside for at least 10 minutes, or up to 8 hours in the fridge.
3. Place the salmon in a deep-sided baking dish. Whisk together the ingredients for the miso marinade and pour over the salmon, turning until completely coated. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours (it can be used straight away).
4. Preheat the oven to 200 ̊C (180°C fan-forced) and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the brown rice for 25-30 minutes or according to the instructions on the packet.
5. While the rice is cooking pour any excess marinade from the salmon and then arrange the salmon fillets in the baking dish. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until the salmon is cooked through and breaks easily with a fork.
6. Serve the salmon fillets with the cooked brown rice and cucumber salad.

Note

• One of the great elements of this dish is that not only is it delicious hot, but make a double batch of it and it works extremely well eaten cold the next day.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.