Teriyaki Salmon Skewers

A quick and easy teriyaki glaze dresses up fresh salmon when you need a change of pace for seafood.

INGREDIENTS:

6 long wooden skewers washed

1 ½ lbs fresh Atlantic salmon, skin trimmed off, cut into 1 ½” chunks (about 24 chunks)

1 T olive oil

1 green bell pepper cut into 2” squares. About 1” to 1 ½” chunks

1 medium white onion also cut into chunks

2 C white rice cooked

1 C water + ¼ C divided

2 generous T cornstarch

½ C soy sauce

3 T packed light brown sugar

2 T honey

1 T finely grated fresh gingerroot

1 large clove of garlic grated (about 1 t)

½ t chili flakes

2 t fish sauce

2 t fresh chopped cilantro

¼ t kosher salt + 1/8 t black pepper

 METHOD:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Combine ¼ C room-temperature water and cornstarch together and blend well.  Add the 1 C water, soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, gingerroot, garlic, chili flakes, and fish sauce in a saucepan blend well. Bring to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes stirring so the edges won’t burn. Take off burner and using a whisk, begin adding a slow and small stream of the cornstarch roux while whisking in to sauce. Keep adding until you’ve used it all. Put back on burner that’s turned off but still hot and whisk until you see some thickening. Let it cool for about an hour. It will definitely start to thicken.
• Lay out salmon, peppers, onion so you can assemble skewers. Rub the 1 T oil on the salmon chunks. Just enough to moisten. A tip when cutting onion is to cut in half, remove skin, and then cut those halves into halves so you have 4 crescent moon shapes. Then divide all the onion layers. Cut each layer in half so you have 1 ½” onion squares for skewering. Use 4 pieces of salmon for each skewer and 4-5 pieces each of onion and 4-5 pieces of green pepper. Start with a green pepper, then salmon, then a pepper and onion, then salmon, then a pepper and onion, then salmon, another green pepper and onion, then salmon, and end with either an onion or pepper. Your choice!
• Before brushing salmon skewers with sauce, first divide the sauce. Reserving about ¼ C in a different container for serving at the end. Using a soft rubber basting brush, brush both sides of the skewers generously with teriyaki sauce. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Bake on a foil lined baking sheet for about 12-18 minutes or until there’s a bit of browning on the peppers and onions and salmon is cooked to medium well.
• To plate add a serving of the rice, add a skewer on top, brush with a bit of the teriyaki you reserved, and then sprinkle with cilantro. Yummy!

(I served this accompanied by cut tomatoes tossed with cilantro, salt and pepper, and a bit of balsamic vinegar.)