Salmon trimmings with soy honey ginger sauce

Salmon trimmings can be a bit tricky to cook. The small size means they can't withstand too much tossing and stirring. Here's a smart way to cook them without ruining their texture and without drowning out the salmon's natural flavor.

Salmon trimmings with soy honey sauce served with scrambled egg over rice

Three houses down the road from ours live a young married couple who are in the smoked meat business. Aside from smoked beef and pork, they also sell smoked salmon. They order the fish whole but only use the fleshy portions. I think we’re the only ones in the neighborhood who have real love for the fish so they sell the trimmings to us for a song. Sometimes, we even get them for free.

So, this dish was cooked with salmon trimmings. I initially debated whether to stir small pieces of fish into eggs to make an omelette, add them to fried rice or drop them into Japanese miso soup. In the end, I decided to cook them in a mixture of soy sauce, honey and grated ginger, and just a tiny bit of lemon juice. To add dimension to the flavors, I served them topped with aonori and shichimi togarashi.

Topped with what?

Aonori is flaked seaweed called green laver in the English-speaking world. It’s briny, smoky and has bolder flavors than the darker-colored nori that’s used for making sushi.

Shichimi togarashi is a “spice blend that includes ground chili peppers and other spices such as sesame seeds, hemp seeds, yuzu zest, green nori, sansho, ume powder, shiso powder” and others.

Salmon trimmings with soy honey ginger sauce