Recipe for Grilled Salmon Skin by Masao Karasuyama

Grilled salmon skin, known as samon no kawa no shio yaki in Japan, is an easy recipe that can be savoured as an appetiser or as a side dish with soup or salad. This preparation is featured in Chihiro Masui’s book, Poissons, un art du Japon (‘Fish: An Art of Japan’), which contains 30 traditional recipes adapted to European ingredients by chef Masao Karasuyama.

In this book, journalist Chihiro Masui meets prominent names in Japanese fish cuisine, such as Hachiro Mizutani and Takeshi Ohira, a fugu specialist. They detail the three fundamental Japanese techniques for fish preparation: ikejime, or ‘humane death’; chinuki, the bleeding of the fish; and ‘fish resting.’

Ingredients

Scaled salmon skin

Skewers

Method

Set aside the carefully scaled skin of a salmon used in another preparation.

Cut it to the desired dimensions and clean it with a knife, removing excess fat and flesh to leave only the skin.

Salt the skin and let it rest for a few minutes.

Cut the skin into narrow strips and roll them around the skewers. Alternatively, cut it into uniform strips.

Cook on a grill directly over a gas flame or on charcoal embers.

Poissons, un art du Japon (2018) (‘Fish: An Art of Japan’), a cookbook by Chihiro Masui with photographs by Richard Haugton, published by Glénat (not currently available in English).