Tamari and Mirin-Glazed Salmon (& a product review!)

As a food blogger, one of the perks is receiving products to test and review. I was recently given the opportunity to test and share my honest opinion of San-J Organic Tamari sauce.

I have done quite a bit of Asian cooking and am very familiar with the taste of soy sauces, but this was my introduction to tamari sauce. Japanese tamari sauce is very similar to soy sauce, in that they are both made from fermented soybeans. Japanese tamari is thicker, darker, and richer than regular soy sauce.

Bonus for anyone watching their gluten intake: this San-J Organic Tamari Sauce is gluten-free.

I’ve been craving salmon for a few days, so making a glaze that featured the flavor of tamari sauce was a pretty easy choice for me.

To make two servings of Mirin and Tamari-Glazed Salmon, you will need:

• 1/8c Tamari Sauce
• 1/8c Mirin
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 4-ounce salmon fillets
• (optional) sesame seeds

First, prepare the marinade/glaze. Wisk together the tamari sauce, mirin, and brown sugar in a small bowl.

Add the grated ginger, and stir to combine.

Add the salmon and marinade to a zipper-sealed plastic bag. Gently “massage” the marinade into the salmon, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

** Take note that the salmon should not marinate for longer than 30 minutes. Any more, and it may start to get mushy. Ewwwww.

Preheat the broiler.

Remove the salmon from the fridge, and place the fillets on a foil-lined baking sheet. Brush on more of the marinade if you like. Discard remaining marinade.

Broil 6 inches away from the heat source for 8-10 minutes, or until the salmon is opaque in the center.

Garnish with sesame seeds, if you wish. Yum!

Serve with steamed veggies and rice. Mmm. Would it be bad to have this a second day in a row?

Seriously, the glaze turned out to be amazing, and I do attribute its excellence to the quality tamari sauce. My husband is not a fan of salmon, and he even enjoyed this.

I did a side-by-side taste test of the soy sauces I had in the fridge versus the San-J tamari sauce, and the difference was surprising. I used just a few drops of each sauce with rice.

Although the salt content of the soy sauce and San-J tamari sauce was the same, the soy sauce tasted more obviously salty while the San-J tamari sauce tasted smooth and complex.

The San-J tamari sauce did lend its subtle saltiness to the salmon, but it was not overpowering. It blended beautifully with the sweet mirin. I think this tamari sauce would also be fantastic with sushi. The travel-size packets from San-J would be nice to use in lunch boxes at work or for taking your own sauce to a sushi restaurant if you need it to be gluten-free.

So, what’s my verdict? I’m going to seek out a full-sized bottle of tamari sauce to cook with now instead of regular soy sauce.

Thank you to MamboSprouts and San-J for introducing me to this delicious tamari sauce!