Food & Wine

Easy Tonkatsu spiced baked salmon recipe

Spiced baked salmon with salad

Blanche Clark with Himanshu Sharda

Posted April 13, 2022

Fresh, healthy and delicious, this spiced baked salmon with seasonal salad is perfect for a family meal, or to impress guests without slaving over a hot stove.

Fish is the key to getting a fresh nutritious meal on the table quickly and easily. Rich in flavour and essential fatty acids, it’s also a great choice for mid-week dinners and even your next dinner party.

RACV Executive Chef Himanshu Sharda, who oversees the kitchen at Healesville Country Club & Resort, appreciates that home cooks don’t have the time and resources of a commercial kitchen, so he’s chosen a fish recipe that requires minimum fuss to get maximum results.

“This is a very easy recipe for you to cook at home,” he says. “For the marinade I use Tonkatsu, which is a Japanese sweet-and-sour sauce consisting of fruit puree, soy sauce and aromatic herbs and spices. It’s usually available at Japanese speciality stores or supermarkets with speciality aisles.”

Sharda’s recipe includes a salad of frisee - otherwise known as curly endive - radishes, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber. If these ingredients aren’t in season, vegetables such as snow peas, spinach and broccoli go well with salmon. 

In terms of sustainability, the Australian Sustainable Seafood Guide, produced by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, suggests using Australian salmon rather than Atlantic Salmon.

Smoked chicken salad

Make the salad using seasonal vegetables that are locally grown. Image: Getty

 

Salmon cooking tips

Why do you leave the skin on when you cook salmon?

Skin helps keep the fish moist and intact. It's easy to take the skin off once the fish is cooked.

How do you avoid undercooking or overcooking the fish?

Covering the fish in foil helps keep the fish moist and stops it drying out. If you like to cook salmon a bit pink, reduce the temperature to 120-140°C.

Why have you used ginger and garlic?

Garlic and ginger add flavour and help reduce the oiliness of the fish.

Tonkatsu spiced baked salmon with seasonal salad recipe

Serves

2

Time to make

60 min

Difficulty

Easy

Ingredients

  • 180g salmon, filleted with skin on
  • 20g ginger, grated
  • 20g garlic, grated 
  • 60ml Tonkatsu
  • 15g coriander, chopped 
  • Salt and pepper, very light
  • Aluminium foil to wrap fish 

Salad

  • Handful of frisee leaves
  • 5 x heirloom tomatoes, cut in half
  • 2 radishes, thinly sliced
  • ½ avocado
  • ½ cucumber
Vinaigrette
  • 50ml olive oil
  • 50ml red wine vinegar
  • 1tsp Dijon mustard
  • Salt & pepper 

 

Method

Fish

  1. Pre heat oven to 180°C.

  2. Combine grated ginger and garlic with Tonkatsu, chopped coriander and seasonings in a bowl and mix together. Alternatively, place the ingredients in a jar, screw on a lid, and shake until combined. 

  3. Pour or brush this marinade over the fish, then wrap in aluminium foil.

  4. Let the fish rest in the fridge for two hours. This allows the fish to absorb all the flavours. 

  5. Put the fish in the oven wrapped in foil for 15 minutes.

Salad

  1. Shave the fennel bulb to create thin slices and place in a bowl.
  2. Add diced avocado and cucumber. 
  3. For the vinaigrette, combine olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and season with salt and pepper. 
  4. Pour the vinaigrette over salad and serve.

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