Travel almost anywhere in central Europe, and you’ll find that one of the most common side dishes is cucumber salad.
Order Wiener schnitzel or fried chicken and along with it will come a bowl of thinly sliced cucumbers tossed with sour cream or vinegar and sugar, plus whole caraway seeds. The little salad is a perfect accompaniment, its cool temperature, soothing flavor and crunchy texture contrasting with the robust meat or poultry.
In the 1970s when I first started eating a lot of Japanese food in Southern California, I was delighted to discover that Asians love cucumber salads just as much. Sunomono, as the Japanese call their traditional version, plays the same role as its European cousins.
So, of course, I had to try making my own version. To tell you the truth, though, it’s not really all that different from traditional recipes. Sometimes, it’s smart to stick with a classic. My main contribution is to insist on starting with top-quality ingredients–and to make the salad part of a main course by adding broiled fish marinated with the rich-tasting Japanese soybean paste called miso.
First, let’s talk about ingredients. I like to make the salad with the long, slender Japanese-style cucumbers widely available in markets today. They aren’t as watery as English-style cucumbers, so the results are a crisper texture. Their seeds also are smaller, so they don’t need scooping out. And you don’t have to remove their mild-tasting peels, so you get more colorful results. But if all you can find is the English cucumber, just peel them, cut lengthwise in half, and scoop out their seeds before slicing.
Buy the dressing and marinade ingredients in a Japanese market or in a supermarket with a good Asian foods’ section. Look for imported Japanese soy sauce, shoyu; unseasoned rice vinegar; and flavorful toasted Asian-style sesame oil. You’ll also probably find jars of pretoasted Japanese sesame seeds, but, if not, get regular pale sesame seeds and toast them by stirring continuously in a small, dry skillet over low heat for about a minute, keeping a close eye on them so they don’t burn.
Rich tasting, hot-from-the-broiler salmon makes a wonderful topping for the cool salad. Substitute another mild-tasting fish such as black cod or sea bass, increasing the cooking time for thicker fillets. Instead of the miso, try substituting your favorite teriyaki glaze.
If you like, you also can cook the fish ahead and serve it cold or at room temperature, making this an especially refreshing main course for a hot summer day or night.
2006 Tribune Media Services
Broiled miso salmon with cucumber salad
Preparation time: 13 minutes
Marinating time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Miso-marinated salmon:
4 Salmon fillets, about 4 ounces each
1/2 cup mirin (Japanese rice wine)
1/4 cup white miso paste
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon each, minced: garlic, fresh ginger
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
Cucumber salad:
1 medium Japanese cucumber, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon each: sugar, soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions
1. Put the salmon fillets in a shallow, non-reactive dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Stir together the mirin, miso, sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger in a small bowl. Slowly stir in the sesame oil. Add marinade to the salmon fillets, turning to coat. Cover; marinate in the refrigerator for 3 to 8 hours.
2. Heat broiler. For salad, combine the sliced cucumbers and salt in a bowl; toss well. Add the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil; toss well. Sprinkle with sesame seeds; toss again. Cover; refrigerate until serving time, about 20 minutes.
3. Transfer the salmon fillets to a broiler pan or baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Broil until nicely browned and barely cooked through in the center, 3-4 minutes per side depending on thickness, turning them carefully with a spatula.
4. Mound the cucumber salad on 4 serving plates; place a salmon fillet on each. Garnish with green onions.
Nutrition information per serving:
287 calories, 40% of calories from fat, 12 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 72 mg cholesterol, 11 g carbohydrates, 28 g protein, 1,349 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
