I’m going to pop a couple of salmon fillets on the barbie for dinner tonight. Usually, I cook salmon one of three ways: Cajun salmon (cast iron frying pan on the stove, then into the oven), baked salmon with dill, or baked salmon with dill with lemon-dill Béchamel sauce. It’s about time I try the grill.
First: I’m not going to buy an alder plank. I don’t want to. I’m also not going to use honey or nuts. So I’m thinking I can just sprinkle the fillets with a pinch of salt; or I can brush them with teriyaki sauce. Any other ideas? Of the salt or teriyaki, which?
Also: I was thinking of just grilling them skin-side down. Should I turn them?
I like turning them because I like the grill marks on the meat. YMMV.
My favorite method of doing up salmon doesn’t actually involve the salmon at all–that just gets grilled or baked or done up in a skillet grill with a brush of olive oil, a bit of garlic salt and a sprinkle of dill. No, what makes it is what’s going on in the OTHER frying pan. I dice up onions, scallions, shallots, garlic cloves, red/orange/yellow bell peppers, chopped basil, maybe good tomatoes–essentially, any good veggies you have available to you, dice them up fine and saute them in a combo of olive oil and butter. Add spices, some red pepper, fresh ground black pepper, dill, lemon juice or zest, bit of salt to taste, smidge of paprika maybe–just go a little nuts in the spice cupboard. Get that all soft and lovely, do up some rice and put a bed of rice, your salmon on that then cover it with the vegetable relish. That, my friend, is heaven on a plate and it never tastes exactly the same because you’ll never have exactly the same veggies in the exact ratios from time to time. It’s always delicious though.
Clean your fillets and debone. Make a mixture of melted butter, fines herbs and 1 clove of crushed garlic. Brush the skin side first, then turn over and brush the flesh. The butter mixture will harden on the fillets.
With a medium high grill, start your fish on the skin side down on direct heat to get the skin crisp. When nearly done, turn fillets briefly for the grill marks SmartAleq mentions.
If you like the crispy skin, leave on and serve. If you don’t, remove the skin at this point, give the fillets a quick brush of the butter mixture, turn and grill briefly for the marks on the skin side before serving.
I don’t think I want to smother the salmon in veg, but a simple grilling like I was originally thinking (and confirmed by Aspenglow, accompanied by sautéd zucchini, yellow squash, onions, red bell pepper, and garlic might be the ticket.
I picked up a great grilling tip from Jaime Oliver. Cut the filet into ~2 inch wide strips. Take some rosemary sprigs, remove most of the leaves along the stick and thread the salmon strips onto the rosemary as if they were skewers. Brush with olive oil and throw on the grill. He recommended removing the skin first but I’ve done it both ways and it’s great either way. I will also slather the salmon with pesto before skewering. Yum!
In Wegmans, you can buy a salmon fillet in a little aluminum pan, resting on a bed of red sweet peppers and mushrooms, You pour the little cup of teriyaki sauce over all and bake it for 15 minutes, and it is really good. Out on the grill, I need a wire fish basket more than anything else!
My favorite recipe for salmon on the grill is Cook’s Illustrated’s Grill-Smoked Salmon. I have had four different people to whom I served it tell me it is the best salmon they’ve ever had.
Put salmon on wire rack and sprinkle flesh side with salt & sugar (2 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp kosher salt). Refrigerate for 1 hour. Brush with paper towels to remove moisture and excess salt & sugar. Soak 2 wood chunks for 30 minutes. Ignite 2 quarts of charcoal in a chimney starter and when partly covered with ash, pour into a pile against one side of grill. Put wood on top of charcoal and cover grill with top vent open 1/2 way for 5 minutes. Put salmon on cool side of grill on a piece of aluminum foil. Cover grill and cook until the salmon’s internal temperature is 125 F, 30-40 minutes.
The bit of sugar, like markn+ suggests, helps the flesh side of the salmon get crisp or register grill marks quickly. If you want to avoid too much sweetness, you can sprinkle onto the salmon just 1/4 teaspoon of sugar, rubbing it in. This is what I do when I use the stove-top grill pan. I like my salmon with a crisp crust on the outside, and slightly medium-rare in the very center, and the sugar trick accomplishes this nicely.
Stir these ingredient in a small bowl until the sugar dissolves. Put your salmon in a ziplock bag and pour the glaze over it. Seal the bag and put it in the fridge for an hour or so.
Grill per the instructions above while brushing the glaze on the fish.
