Miso Maple Salmon à la Nobu

grilled miso maple salmon fillet on a white plate with potatoes and tomatoes.

Here is a variation of a popular dish that’s sure to thrill. The 50+ Nobu restaurants around the world are famous for their miso black cod. I have reverse engineered it and made miso maple salmon. I swapped the black cod for salmon and kicked it up a notch by adding smoke, maple syrup, and touch of hot sauce.

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Marinating Time 2

Total Time 3

Servings: 4

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Difficulty: Easy

Special Tools

1/2 cup wood pellets, chips, or hardwood sawdust or dried herbs—something that will smoke rapidly

Ingredients

2 tablespoons white miso
2 tablespoons real maple syrup not pancake syrup
1 teaspoon hot sauce your favorite
4 skin-on salmon fillets 8 ounces each
Japanese pickled ginger for garnish

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Method

Make the brinerade. In a coffee cup, mix the miso, syrup, and hot sauce with a fork.
Gash and paint. With a very sharp knife, gash the meat side of the fish by drawing the blade across it every 3/4 to 1 inch, making cross hatches about halfway through the meat. This will help the brinerade penetrate. With a brush or spoon, spread the brinerade on the fish making sure to get it into the gashes. Place the fish on a plate in the refrigerator for 2 hours, and every 30 minutes or so paint it again.
Fire up. Set up the grill for 2-zone cooking but keep the heat energy down on the direct heat side. Do not oil the grates (or the fish). Lift up the grate over the heat source and toss some dried herbs, pellets, wood chips, or sawdust on the coals or burners.
Smoke and serve. As soon as you see smoke, lay the fish skin-side down on the grate above the smoke source and place a metal pan upside down over the fish to trap the smoke. Close the lid. After about 5 minutes, take the temperature of the meat just below the top surface. The bottom near the skin will be hotter than the top. When the top layer hits 125° to 130°F, remove the fish from the heat. The skin may stick to the grate. Great! If not, you should be able to peel it off easily or, what the heck, just serve it and let your guests eat off the half shell. Garnish with the pickled ginger.

Notes

About the miso. White miso is milder and better than red miso in this recipe.

About the pickled ginger. This is the stuff you get in Japanese sushi restaurants, thin pink slivers. You can find it in most Asian stores and online.