Shio Koji Salmon Flakes 塩麹鮭フレーク

Have you ever seen jars of salmon flakes being sold at a Japanese supermarket? They are delicious and convenient ingredients to use as a rice topping or further made into rice balls, fried rice, or other dishes.

If you ever happen to have some salmon fillets on hand, maybe give it a try and turn them into flakes. The entire process is not hard at all, and you can easily get store-bought quality salmon flakes being made at home, all natural style too. 

Shio koji salmon flakes 塩麹鮭フレーク - 

Ingredients?

• 550 grams salmon fillets
• Some salt
• 2 tablespoons shio koji
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Japanese sake 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds

How?

Personally I prefer to cook salmon without the skin unless it's like searing or frying. The choice is yours. Once decided to keep or remove the skin, sprinkle all sides with some salt and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. 

After that, wipe out excess liquid that has been drawn out by the salt. Have a pot of water ready and switch to medium heat. Add in the salmon when the water is still lukewarm. Keep cooking the fish using such medium heat till fully cooked-through.

Once cooked-through, remove the fish and set aside to let cool. When it's fine to handle the fish by hand, break the fish into medium chunks, also discard the skin too. Meanwhile, touch and feel the fish chunks, making sure there are no bones remain. Aim to pick out any bones inside if any. After all we are aiming to enjoy the fish "flakes" without worrying about getting pierced by it.

Have a pan ready. There is no need to drizzle any oil there. Just add in the salmon pieces along with 2 tablespoons of shio koji, 1 1/2 tablespoons Japanese sake, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of mirin.

Use medium heat to cook the salmon chunks. Mix and break the salmon into even smaller pieces. Continue to cook and break the salmon till some moisture has been removed and appear flaky. Mine took about 10 minutes.

Mix in about 1 tablespoon of toasted white sesame seeds towards the end. That's about it. You'll get salmon flakes that taste just as close as the store-bought version. And we even boosted up the flavor with the help of shio koji. 

Some people simply use the salmon flakes as a topping, more so like a side dish with rice. Sometimes I'd like to use it as the main protein ingredient for fried rice. 

These flakes are especially good when used in fried rice, paired with some chopped veggies and a touch of white pepper powder. If you can make the fried rice using basmati rice, the final result will make you even happier. 

Other salmon recipes:

• Miso crunch salad with seared salmon
• Soupy version simmered salmon and daikon in miso broth
• Salmon and dashi takikomi gohan using brown rice 炊き込みご飯
• Salmon and quinoa rice stuffed fried tofu pouches