{Miso Salmon}

My pal Rach made this and told me it rocked, I'd also heard Gwyenth rave about it, you know the one,  shes got a daughter called Apple so I gave it a crack and its good.  Its really good.  This particular version served with rice and the little cucumber salad tastes like a big plate of sushi, so if sushi is your thing then you'll love this.

I wish I'd known about it when I was preggers because sushi is a no no then and for the whole nine months I craved it, both times!  The first meal I had after squeezing out each of my little munchkins was sushi, anyway I'm kind of rambling now which happens if I sit here without any idea of the direction I'm going to take and I'm hungry, my mind wanders when I'm hungry.  Ok going now.  Oh I just wanted to also mention its healthy, like super healthy.

...the salmon
3 tbsp pale (shiro) miso paste
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp rice wine (optional)
2 x salmon fillets

...cucumber salad

a lebanese cucumber
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp caster sugar

Stir together the miso, mirin, sugar and rice wine, drop in the salmon fillets and toss with the miso marinade then cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

Heat your oven to 200, lightly oil a baking tray and use kitchen paper to wipe off most of the marinade.  Place the fillets on the baking tray, skin side down. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until starting to colour.

Meanwhile, make the cucumber salad, using a vegetable peeler, shave the cucumber into long, thin ribbons, whisk together the rice wine vinegar, oil and sugar and add the cucumber ribbons, let them hang out til you're ready to dish up. 

Serve with the salmon and some rice sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.