Oh, my friends. My friends! (Especially you, Jenna and Ally!) I’ve been sitting on this recipe long enough. Some of you have been nagging me to post it for more than a year. Behold the two-step teriyaki: Step 1, marinate. Step 2, bake. ‘Tis all. I’ve done this with salmon (which I maintain is the absolute best vehicle for this homemade sauce), but you can do it with tofu, chicken, or presumably anything else. I think I originally got the idea for this from my friend Gill, who got it from her dad. Thanks, Gill and Gill’s dad!
Let’s get cookin’:
- One whole salmon, fileted in half (see below for a note on smaller quantities)
- 1 cup real maple syrup (I mean REAL, guys)
- 2/3 cup soy sauce or tamari if you’re gluten-free
- 4 cloves of garlic, sliced (optional, but why not?)
This is so stupidly easy that you’ll probably be mad I hadn’t posted it earlier. First, combine the soy sauce and maple syrup in a deep baking dish and marinate the fish upside-down in the sauce for at least 20 minutes (I’d say you can let it sit for up to an hour). Next and last, bake the fish at 400°F for 20-30 minutes, until it’s cooked through and looking glazed on the top.
If you’re using garlic, top the fish with it before you pop it in the oven. I also like to spoon some of the sauce onto the top of the fish right when it comes out, just to keep things moist. It’s very important that you use a deep baking dish, because the sauce will boil and rise up above the top of the fish.
I served this with sauteed broccoli (cooked with garlic, salt, and a Chinese 5-spice blend) and jasmine rice (cooked with coconut oil and a bit of white sugar). The whole fish served five people with the two side dishes, and we had leftovers. If you end up with leftovers, too, I implore you not to heat them up: this fish is even better when served cold on the second day! If you’d like to make a smaller amount, use cut filets and scale the sauce quantities down accordingly. Voilà!
PhD Kitchen 