Oven-Baked Gochujang Salmon Fillets

What do you usually get at Costco? Here in Taiwan, I always go to Costco for toilet paper and tissue. As for food-related items, I tend to grab salmon fillets, organic chicken stock, and lactose-free milk. Especially the salmon fillets, not only it's priced reasonably, it comes boneless and skinless, so easy to utilize for many recipes.

You can find some broiled gochujang salmon recipes online, but I prefer oven-baked instead, I think that for thicker fillets, broiling can be harder to tell if the fish is fully cooked-through. Slower baking time takes that worry away and I don't even have to stick in a thermometer to check with this oven-baking method.

Oven-baked gochujang salmon fillets - 

Ingredients (for 4 fillets)?

• 4 salmon fillets
• 1 stalk scallion
• Some toasted white sesame seeds
• Some olive oil 
• Some salt
• Some black pepper
• Some quinoa basmati rice (optional)

Glaze:

• 3 tablespoons gochujang
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 2 garlic cloves (peeled/finely chopped)

How?

Preheat the oven to 390 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with foil and grease some oil on top, which will further prevent the fish fillets from sticking. 

Destem and chop the scallion, set aside for garnish in the end.

Set the salmon fillets to baking sheet. Drizzle some olive oil over fish fillets and season both sides with some salt and black pepper.

Into the oven for 5 minutes first. Meanwhile, let's prepare the glaze. Simply mix all the ingredients under the "glaze" section and give it a good mix. It'll be hard for all the sugar crystals to fully dissolved, but at least mix till somewhat blended.

Once the salmon has been baking for about 5 minutes, remove from oven. Pour over the glaze, make sure the glaze covers all sides, except the bottom. Back to the oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

Now we switch the heat up to broiling. Pay attention to the fillets, once the glaze thickens and the top just about to burn, remove from heat and transfer to serving plates.

I prepared some quinoa basmati rice to eat along with, so I lay the fillets on top of the rice. Sprinkle some toasted white sesame seeds over and garnish with chopped scallion.

The salmon fillets turned out moist in the center with thickened glaze all over. It's slightly sweet with a tiny hint of heat, pairs well with white rice per my opinion. 

You can actually prepare the sauce ahead of time and store in the fridge, I would say one or two days won't hurt. Maybe prep the glaze during the weekend and use it on busy weekdays. Cleaning is easy afterwards too since we covered the baking sheet with foil. I guess that adds a few extra points for this recipe, right? 

Other salmon recipes:

• Colorful chickpea salad with white wine vinaigrette
• Salmon and cabbage miso stir-fry
• Miso soup using homemade fish and kombu stock (味噌汁)
• Colorful roasted veggies with salmon
• Edamame and smoked salmon toast