Wrap Food for a Simple Flavor: Miso Salmon with Mushrooms
by Marc Matsumoto on Oct 16, 2012
Wrapping salmon in aluminum foil creates a chamber that puffs up with steam and gently cooks the fish and mushrooms in its own juices.
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While many traditional methods of wrapping food involve using leaves such as banana, lotus, bamboo, or corn, aluminum foil works just as well. It may not impart as much flavor as using leaves, but its a lot easier to find if you dont live in a part of the world that happens to grow these plants.
Once the food is wrapped and sealed in the foil, it creates a chamber that puffs up with steam as it heats that will gently steam the salmon and mushrooms. To bump up the umami of this dish, I like using a variety of Asian mushrooms such as shimeji, enoki and shiitake, but you can use any mushrooms that suit your fancy. You could also go wild and add other vegetables into the pouch such as asparagus, bell peppers, or thinly sliced potatoes.
The sauce is a combination of earthy miso and sweet mirin, giving the contents of the pouch a depth of flavor that belies the small number of ingredients. Leaving out the butter will make this healthier, but personally I love the richness it adds to the nutty miso.
Perhaps the best part of this dish is that you can wrap the pouches ahead of time and store the in the fridge, making this the perfect dish for a dinner party. It not only looks impressive and tastes great, all you have to do is pop a tray of these in the oven while you and your guests have the first course.
Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marcs been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.