What is Salmon Mentai-don? A very good question, that I myself asked the internet only 48 short hours ago! It all started when the Ocado order came, bringing with it two plump and juicy salmon fillets. “Are you going to do something with it?” asked my mum expectantly. “yeh” I said, cogs whirring about how I could make two small fillets into an exciting meal for my three person household. I thought about all the recipes I had seen lately. Baked salmon with lemon orzo, or salmon curry, or the creamy salmon pastas in every supermarket magazine and Hello-fresh style box. To be honest…I wasn’t inspired. I wanted to tantalise my tastebuds with something totally new, so, ladies and gentlemen, I did what anyone would do in my desperate situation. I turned to the deep depths of the web. I found myself down rabbit hole after rabbit hole perusing restaurant menus from far off places, googling snippets of dish names and adding ‘salmon’ at the beginning or end. I am not sure how long I was at this for but at some point I came across "Salmon mentai-don” and it looked SO good. Unfortunately I didn’t have the two main ingredients, cods roe or sushi grade salmon. But in this day and age of the ‘eggless egg mayo’ and the ‘vegan fried chicken’ I thought there was still a reasonable chance I could capture the spirit of this dish, and failing that, invent something brand new.

I know I still have not told you what salmon mentai-don is but the lawyer and anthropologist in me (yes I am aware that is a lot of separate personalities - oh how we quarrel) both want me to start with a huge disclaimer. The name of this dish as I have mentioned is salmon mentai-don, and gets the ‘mentai’ part of its name from a key ingredient: mentaiko or cod’s roe. Since this recipe does not use fish eggs I feel I need to explain myself immediately! Much like the aforementioned ‘eggless’ egg mayo recipes out there and the ‘vegan chickens’ of this world, I am keeping the ‘menati’ part of this dish’s description because even without the fish eggs, the overall effect of the dish remains, and quite frankly is not comparable to anything else I’ve ever seen or tried!

The creamy spicy brûléed mayo over torched thinly sliced salmon atop a fluffy mountain of rice is not something I have seen anywhere other than in this dish…so fish eggs or no fish eggs, it remains distinctive and more importantly for our purposes ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS.

Another disclaimer, although the traditional dish calls for it, I am not using sushi grade salmon in this recipe because this whole recipe was born out of a supermarket delivery of salmon fillets that wanted using. If you have sushi grade fish, great, use it! if not, just make sure you torch/flash fry the daylights out of it to ensure it cooks.

I would recommend everyone has a blow torch in their kitchen as I find them so useful for imparting instant bbq smokiness or crispy charring. So get onto Amazon and order one! I see creme brûlées in your future! Having said that, even if you don’t have a blow torch you can still make this amazing recipe! It won’t have as much smokiness (which is honestly an incredible contrast with the sweet creamy fish and sauce) but it is still delicious. All you need to do is gently fry the salmon slices in some melted butter instead of torching them and put the final dish with the sauce on under the broiler/grill for 5 minutes to caramelise and char.

So enough chat, this is my version! Or versions plural I should say depending on whether you have a blow torch or not!

Simple Salmon Mentai-don Recipe

(without fish eggs or sushi grade salmon)

Feeds 2 hungry people

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (Kewpie brand would likely be best but I used Hellmans)

• 2 teaspoons of sriracha sauce. (I wouldn’t recommend substituting for another hot sauce as this one also has garlic which lends a lot of flavour to the resulting sauce)

• 1 teaspoon of tomato ketchup

• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce

For the fish:

• 2 fresh salmon fillets ( avoid the really skinny ones and go for the wider ones)

• *2 knobs of slightly salted butter IF DOING BROILER/GRILL VERSION

Marinade for the fish:

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

• 2 tablespoons of mirin (substitute for 1 teaspoon of honey or maple syrup if you don’t have it)

Rice:

• jasmine or sushi rice cooked according to packet instructions, in quantity of your choosing.

Garnish:

• 1 spring onion - the white part finely minced, and the green part sliced on the bias into rings

• 1 handful of crispy shallots - you can get these from the supermarket in a packet and they add a fantastic flavour and texture to the final dish. Well worth it!

Method:

1. Set your rice to cook according to packet instructions.

2. Make the sauce. Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl and to it add the sriracha, ketchup, soy sauce and fish sauce. Mix to combine then set aside.

3. Make the marinade. Mix the soy and mirin in a medium bowl and set aside.

4. Prepare your fish. Wash fillets in cold running water and pat dry with kitchen towel. Using a very sharp knife remove the skin from the salmon. Discard the skin and clean your chopping board. Using a sharp knife cut the salmon into thin slices about 2-3mm thick against the grain at an angle, and place into your marinade for 5 minutes. If you don’t feel sure how to cut the fish, check out the salmon mentai-don reel on my instagram @gggsarah for a visual.

5. Cook your fish.

   • If you have a blowtorch - lay each slice of salmon flat on a metal tray. Torch the side facing up until opaque and slight black char marks appear. Flip the slice of fish with a small offset spatula or fork and torch the other side.

   • If you do not have a blow torch - melt some slightly salted butter in a pan on medium- low heat. As soon as the butter begins to melt add your salmon slices and let them cook very gently for 2 minutes until just opaque. It should not pick up any colour in this process

6. Build your bowl: Place some rice in the bottom of each diner’s bowl and top with the cooked salmon making sure you totally cover up the rice as far as possible. *If you do not have a blowtorch, ensure the bowls are oven safe or else use a casserole dish.

7. Top with the creamy sauce: completely cover the salmon and any rice poking through with a blanket of sauce. You can do this with a spoon or a piping bag - both work perfectly well.

8. Brûlée your sauce:

   If you have a blowtorch - simply torch the sauce topped salmon well, so that the colour changes from light pink to an intense orange, and black char marks appear.

   If you don’t have a blow torch - set your broiler/grill to the highest setting and wait for it to get very hot. Place the finished dish on the top shelf of the grill as close to the element as possible and grill for 5 minutes or until the sauce has turned a deep orange and crucially there are lots of black bubbles or charred parts.

9. Garnish your dish with spring onion and crispy shallots.

   Got questions? Drop me a DM on my instagram @gggsarah

   Made this dish? Tag me on instagram! I always love to see it!