Baked Salmon Parcels With Autumn Mushrooms And Sweet Miso Sauce

This week we say ‘arigatou gozaimasu!’ to Meg and Zenta Tanaka of CIBI, the Japanese-inspired cafe and concept store, who have nurtured our minds and tums with their simple, nutritious fare. With a core philosophy of ‘head, hands, heart’, these recipes taken from their recently released cookbook allow you to recreate a bit of CIBI magic, wherever you are!

Be sure to take a look at the other recipes from this series: the famous CIBI soba salad; a gluten-free, vegetarian cabbage and corn okonomi-yaki; and a hearty winter miso gratin with cauliflower and mushrooms. For this final recipe, Meg shares a baked salmon dish she used to help her mother prepare when she was little.

Written

Meg Tanaka

A baked salmon dish Meg Tanaka of CIBI food and concept store used to help her mother make. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Styling – Lucy Feagins. Styling Assistant – Ashley Simonetto.

Salmon parcels, tied with baking paper and kitchen string and cooked in the oven. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Styling – Lucy Feagins. Styling Assistant – Ashley Simonetto.

The texture and flavour of shimeji and enoki are great for this dish, but button or brown mushrooms are good substitutes if you can’t find the former. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Styling – Lucy Feagins. Styling Assistant – Ashley Simonetto.

You can use lots of different vegetables in this baked salmon dish. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files. Styling – Lucy Feagins. Styling Assistant – Ashley Simonetto.

Writer

Meg Tanaka

26th of June 2018

At CIBI, our approach to food is simplicity itself. Using the tastiest seasonal ingredients, good produce and a healthy balance of vegetables, fruits, fish and meats, we create a menu of homely dishes to excite the senses and feed the ‘cibi’ in you. We hope you’ll enjoy cooking these recipes at home and that they bring you smiles and happiness.

I used to help my Mum make this salmon dish when I was little. We had no baking tray at home in those days, as baking wasn’t so common. Instead, it was fun to wrap the fillets in individual pieces of foil, bake them one by one and serve them with a little cube of butter and a slice of lemon on top. My family considered it a very ‘high-end’ western dish, but I’ve added sweet miso sauce for an eastern touch. I bake the salmon with mushrooms, but you can used other vegetables such as fennel, zucchini, capsicum or tomato: whatever flavour combination you like!

Ingredients (serves 4)

1/2 leek, sliced in 5mm pieces
1 medium onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
4 x 90-100g salmon fillets
3 tablespoons Sweet Miso Sauce
8 thin lemon wheels
100g shimeji mushrooms*
50g enoki mushrooms*
20g salted butter
1 tablespoon finely sliced spring onion, to garnish
juice of 1/2 lemon, to garnish

*You can buy many different kinds of Japanese mushrooms: smiheji, enoki, eringi (king oyster), maitake (oyster), shiitake, etc. The texture and flavour of shimeji and enoki are great for this dish, but button or brown mushrooms are good substitutes if you can’t find the former.

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Cut out four 30 x 30cm squares of baking paper.

Divide the leek and onion between the four squares, then lay the salmon pieces on top. Pour the miso sauce over the salmon, then top with the lemon wheels, mushrooms and butter. Close each parcel, tying it together with kitchen string.

Transfer the parcels to a baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Plate the parcels, cut them open, then garnish with spring onion and lemon juice. Serve immediately.

This is an edited extract from CIBI by Meg and Zenta Tanaka published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $50.00. The book is available in stores nationally and online.