White Miso Salmon with Sesame Greens

Ingredients

• 4 salmon fillets, about 140g each, skin on
• 2 tbsp white miso paste
• 1 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 x 250g pre-cooked jasmine rice pouches
• 200 g Tenderstem broccoli, trimmed
• 100 g sugar snap peas
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Whisk the miso, mirin, honey and soy together into a thick, glossy glaze. Press it generously onto the flesh side of each salmon fillet — a proper coat, not a smear, because this is where the lacquer comes from.
2. Pat the salmon skin bone-dry with kitchen paper and season the flesh side lightly with salt. Wet skin steams instead of crisping, and the miso brings most of the salt later — a light hand now keeps it balanced.
3. Heat the sesame oil in a stainless or cast-iron frying pan over medium-high heat. Lay the salmon skin-side down — don't crowd the pan, give each fillet space, or the heat drops and you'll poach instead of sear. Cook two batches if your pan is small.
4. Leave the fillets alone for 4–5 minutes, until the skin is deep golden and crisp and the flesh has turned opaque halfway up the side. Flip and cook for another 1–2 minutes, spooning the glaze over as it caramelises to mahogany. Watch it closely — miso and honey go from glossy to scorched in seconds.
5. Lift the salmon onto a warm plate to rest. Splash a tablespoon of water into the hot pan, scrape up the sticky glazed bits with a wooden spoon, and let it bubble for 20 seconds into a glossy pan sauce. Spoon it back over the fillets — that's the lacquer the dish is built on.
6. Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and salt it generously — it should taste like the sea. Drop in the Tenderstem and sugar snaps and blanch for 2–3 minutes, until bright green and just tender with a bit of bite. Drain well and toss straight away with the sesame oil and soy sauce while still hot, so the greens drink it in.
7. Heat the jasmine rice pouches according to the packet. Taste the greens and the glaze — most of the salt comes from the soy and miso, but a final pinch on the rice ties it all together. Adjust now, not at the table.
8. Spoon the rice into bowls, lay the miso salmon on top with its glossy pan sauce, and pile the sesame greens alongside. Scatter with toasted sesame seeds and spring onions, and squeeze a lime wedge over each portion — the acid cuts through the sweet glaze and lifts everything you've just built.