I go up to Pike Place Market in Seattle for fresh salmon every couple months. I’ll buy 2 whole fish, bring them home and fillet them. One fillet will be dinner that night, the rest is vacuum packed and frozen for later. I typically grill mine with a dusting of Johnny’s Salmon seasoning then finish with a compound butter or flavored vinaigrette I get from a small shop in Port Townsend. If I want it extra fancy, I’ll grill it on a cedar plank. Still remember the best salmon I ever ate. Caught a 70 pound king salmon while working on a charter boat out of Westport. I sold the fish except for the 3 inches behind the gills. Went back to the travel trailer I was staying in and fried it in butter with some salt and pepper. I did something right, it was melt in your mouth tender and tasted fantastic.
Okay, here’s the opposite of “Catch your own salmon and gut it”:
I’m busy and I’m lazy, so no prep, no marinade, no additional ingredients, no compound butter…
In fact, this happened just yesterday:
Wife texted on her way home from work: “Anything for dinner?”
“I’ll grill salmon.”
“Yum!”
So I biked to Trader Joe’s, and let the perky clerky “Oooh, looks like someone’s eating healthy tonight…” roll off my curmudgeonly back.
Got home, opened a beer (in a bottle, very important part of grilling), and lit the gas grill (no time for coals)… Okay, enough backstory, here’s the recipe.
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Lazy Grilled Salmon
(2 min. prep, 12 min. cooking)
Salmon filets (any amount, two pounds give us plenty of leftovers).
Place skin-side down on oiled aluminum foil (lazy cleanup, too!). Poke with fork, drench in lemon juice, liberally shake garlic salt on top.
Place foil on pre-heated grill, on high heat (I arrange it so thick parts of salmon are over the “hot spots” on my cheap-ass hardware store grill).
Grill for 9-12 minutes, turning (and removing skin if you want) at the 5 minute mark. Optional: after you turn it, poke it again and shake some soy sauce on it.
That’s it… I “plate it” by flipping salmon seared-side up onto a nice plate (pre-heated by putting it on top of grill for a minute), then taking the foil off the grill and tenting it over the salmon (I sometimes let it rest like this while I make a salad).
Oh, on your way back into the house, be sure to glance at grill, notice it needs no cleanup, and mutter “Lazy, indeed…”
Note: While grilling, do not go back in house. Instead, sip a long-necked bottle of good beer, stare at trees/lake/garage/whatever, enjoy the slow pace of primal meat-on-fire.
I agree. Sadly, I no longer live in Alaska, so the “fresh” sockeye here in Portland is not quite. Anyway, I prefer it simple: sautéed in butter/olive oil until seared and still pink inside, but easily flaked. Overcooked salmon is just criminal.
I also like to make salmon patties, mixing chopped salmon with herbs, egg, bread/cracker crumbs and lemon zest, then coat with Panko and fry in a bit of oil.
I get jars of smoked sockeye salmon from Copper River Seafoods. It’s the best that I’ve found. I put it on toasted bagels with cream cheese and bacon and thin slices of red onion and tomato, sprinkle with some dill and a little ground pepper. We also like to make a smoked salmon pasta sauce made with cream and butter and some grated nutmeg. I buy a case of jars for my kids to divvy up each Christmas.
Oh, I should comment that I want to try some of the recipes here, but any deviance from that “Lazy Salmon” (a couple of posts ago) gets a sour face from my wife: “Mmm, I like your usual salmon much better. Can you just do that?”
In fact, we recently ate at a great seafood restaurant (Salty’s in West Seattle), and their chef had just lucked upon some beautiful King Salmon. My wife ordered it, smiled at her first bite, and had me try it. Darned if it didn’t taste like “our usual”! (well, about $50 better, of course…)
I asked how it was prepared… “We do almost nothing to it, just a few squeezes of lemon, then garlic and salt.”
There’s a place in Orange we frequented when I worked down there, called The Chili Pepper. It shut down recently after 40-some years in business. I liked their Chipotle Salmon, so I made a copycat recipe so that I could have it at home. It tasted pretty close.
Make a foil ‘boat’ in a baking dish for your salmon and put the filet(s) in it. Sprinkle with a little kosher salt. Slice some white mushrooms (I like them thicker), and coarsely chop a yellow onion. Finely chop a canned chipotle chile. Or two. Or three… It depends on how hot you want it, so you’ll have to decide how many peppers to use. Mix the mushrooms, onions, and peppers into an appropriate amount of sour cream. Pour the mixture over the salmon, seal the aluminum foil to make a packet, and bake in a 375°F oven for about 45 minutes (more or less, depending on the thickness of the salmon). Serve with steamed zucchini and yellow squash.
That’s often the best part, isn’t it? The only exceptions that I can think of right now have tons of bones throughout that are more easily avoided in the part toward the tail.
No joke, I had that same exact dish at Salty’s 4 weeks ago! And it was the best salmon I’ve had.
Used to work on a Salmon Packer on the west coast of BC. I have cooked A LOT of salmon! This is my go to recipe:
My favorite is take salmon fillets, place skin side down on a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil.
Using a sharp knife cut a few 1/8" deep X’s along the fillet. Next put a 1/8" thick layer of Miracle Whip, then liberally sprinkle fresh (or dried) dill and hit it with some fresh ground pepper.
Bake at 330 degrees for 20-30 minutes (depending on the size/thickness of your fillet).
Once done serve with a spatula! All Salmon skin will stick to the tinfoil.
And this may be blasphemy, but I actually prefer farmed Atlantic salmon over wild Sockeye! Sockeye is a little too lean for me. I find Coho (then Spring) as my favorite wild salmon, then Sockeye, then Chum or super (like on your plate within a few hours) fresh Pink salmon.
MtM
You may be the first person I’ve ever seen who likes chum and pink. In Alaska that’s called “dog salmon” because that’s what is fed to sled pullers. I’m not saying there’s anything necessarily wrong with it (especially fresh), it’s just not something I would choose. My mother used to make halibut by your method of a coating of mayo and then baking it. It seems like 20-30 minutes is very long for a salmon filet.
I really want to stick to salmon and not hijack my own thread, but I’ll chime in to say I do something similar with various white fish. I mix tarragon into mayonnaise and coat the fish, then roll the fish in panko bread crumbs and bake it. [/hijack]
Well you will notice Chum and Pink were at the bottom of the list! I have never bought either type of salmon, I just had it super fresh while working on the fishing boat.
Fun fact: Chum are also called “Dog Salmon” because in the fall when they spawn they grow large incisor teeth like a dog would have. And to clarify I worked on the fishing boat from July 1st to Labour day so I never ate “fall Chum” salmon.
MtM
Ooh! Competing etymologies! 
That’s when they become “humpies”.
We have a different sort of salmon here in Australia, the arripis trutta, mainly found in southern waters. It’s considered to be pet food, and fisherman who bring one up will curse the gods for their rotten luck.
However I find it a perfectly delicious fish when fresh. I can’t get it up here in the tropics*, but when living down south, I’d hunt out fishmongers in search of the freshest fishies with the brightest eyes. And not unexpectedly, it was the cheapest fish in the shop, even ‘less desirable’ than bloody carp!!
It’s a stronger tasting fish than what most would like, but hell, if I’m going to have some fish for dinner, I want it to TASTE like the sea, not some bland slab of white flesh that needs masses of condiments to make it edible. It also tends to have patches of darker meat, but it doesn’t affect the flavour one bit.
So after gutting, cleaning and filleting the fish, I just douse it in flour and an egg wash. And gently fry in shallow oil for a few minutes each side, served with just salt and lemon. Damned fine fare.
*Funnily enough, I’m not enamoured with the seafood available here in Far North Queensland. It’s barramundi, mackerel or coral trout for the most part, and despite living so close to the source, the fish is of dubious freshness and horrendously expensive. And getting take-away fish and chips is a crap shoot, with CRUMBED fish being the default ffs.
Give me a crappy Aus salmon any day.
That’s when Pink salmon become “humpies”!
MtM
I like this whole meal - salmon sate skewers with rice and salad. Recipe Details | Publix Super Markets
Was that you sitting by the window with the stovepipe hat? I was the guy who stomped it into a derby so we could see the view of the Seattle skyline! Small world…
Seriously, do you know of other restaurants that serve salmon that good in Seattle? And was Salty’s hard to get to with the West Seattle Bridge closed?
Not too much. That was the best! I hardly ever order salmon because I usually prefer other fish (or meat), so don’t have much to offer. I’ve had good salmon at Chinook’s and Anthony’s, but I’d guess there are better options (albeit much more expensive).
Hell yeah! I used to do Salty’s (happy-hour menu) every week. What used to be a 25-minute rush-hour drive is now closer to 90 minutes. And no more happy hour menu. So now it’s only a special occasion excursion.
In oven proof sauté pan put salmon filets skin side down in a wee bit of olive oil. Smear top with whole grain mustard and then mix pano and salt lemon pepper… Spread on top of mustard. Stovetop cook skin for five minutes, put in hot oven for 10 minutes or to done. Varies on thickness.
Salmon went into my regular rotation when the cheap farmed stuff from Chile became available. My preparation is dead simple: broil skin side up under high heat for 5 minutes. Use ice tongs or a table knife to pull off the charred skin and discard it. Flip the fish over and sprinkle liberally with Johnny’s Alaskan Salmon Seasoning Blend or lemon pepper. Broil another 4 minutes. Meanwhile, I’ve microwaved for 11 seconds (just to warm) a dollop of Reese’s Bearnaise Sauce on my plate. I commonly pop a mini-naan under the same broiler to be the meal’s bread.