When we eat fish, it’s usually wild-caught salmon (preferably with the skin on). Salmon doesn’t need a lot of help. Some kosher salt is fine. Or maybe kosher salt, fresh rosemary sprigs, and lemon slices. Or kosher salt, fresh dill, and a lemon-dill Béchamel.
Today I thought I’d grill some salmon on the barbie. When I opened the freezer though. I saw that we had Trader Joe’s Salmon Pinwheels. Much easier (22 minutes at 400ºF). But we still have a couple ov very nice wild-caught salmon filets (I don’t remember if the skin’s on). So… Just kosher salt? That would be good. The flavour of the fish, the salt, and the grill taste. Teriyaki? Haven’t made teriyaki salmon in donkey’s years. I could do without the carbs. How about marinating in soy sauce? (Of course there’s always the rosemary-end-lemon thing, with the added char taste.)
I typically don’t grill salmon. Heck, I typically don’t grill at all. But mostly as a matter of the logistics of where I live, not as a culinary preference.
But when I oven-bake my skin-on salmon filets I just put a rather heavy hand of coarsely cracked pepper on it, and a teeny smidgen of dill. No salt. The visible top surface of the fish should be mostly flesh, 10% - maaybe 20% obscured with peppercorn chunks. A uniform pepper crust would be waaay too much.
A bunch of the pepper flavor gets into the flesh, but not too much. If the end result is a little too peppery, knocking most of the pepper chunks off with a fork is easy.
Overall, if you or the missus are someone who enjoys the classic steak au poivre, you’d probably like this prep too.
I mean, I’ve been known to ruin a good piece of fish on the grill due to insufficiently rigorous cleaning, but I got rid of my grill years ago - so mine is a hot sear in a skillet, plus finishing in the oven as needed when I’m doing a straight salmon fillet or steak.
I like going with a good sprinkling of Maldon smoked sea salt (I love smoke flavor in most meats) and a dusting of ground sumac berries for a bit of extra color and a citrus adjacent flavor. I’d agree that with quality salmon such as you mention, less is more. Sadly, budget means I’m normally buying pretty cheap farmed salmon, and that’s when heavy sauces such as teriyaki, TJ’s yuzu paste, or other options with strong independent flavors are a big help.
Living in the Land of Fresh Salmon, it’s criminal to not enjoy this treat often. So I do.
My favorite method is the grill. I paint the fish on both sides with a mixture of butter, minced garlic and fines herbes. Start it skin side down, then flip, remove the crispy skin (but save!) and paint the bit that got missed under the skin. Most of the butter drips off, but it leaves the most lovely flavor. Serve with the crispy skin aside.
I also like to use the broiler with a Dijon mustard, rosemary and white wine mixture on top, or seared in a pan on the stove top after marinating in soy, garlic and lemon.
Salmon is splendid almost any way you prepare it, IMHO.
You can buy them ready-mixed. Penzey’s has them. I just mince a couple cloves of garlic into a couple tablespoons of butter, then sprinkle some fines herbes into the mixture and give it 30 seconds or less in the microwave. Paint both sides of the uncooked fish with the melted butter, which will then stay in place when it cools back down, ready for the grill.
I know Goo loves you for it! Because yes, the crispy skin is wonderful.
Our salmon recipe involves grilling baskets that hold the fish in place and makes turning easy while eliminating sticking on the grill.
Mandoline lemons into thin slices. Line basket bottom with lemon slices. Season salmon fillets with salt, pepper, and prepared dill seasoning mix. Lay salmon into basket on top of lemon and then top salmon with more lemon slices. Close basket. Grill over medium charcoals to desired doneness.
I normally cook salmon in a frying pan in butter, with a bit of salt and some ground sumac on top. When I’ve done it on the barbecue, I made a foil parcel with the salmon fillets, salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, and chopped spring onion (scallions in America?). Turned out pretty well.
I have a salmon on the grill go-to that involves soy sauce, but not marinating. I find, in general, marinating is not really necessary for fish, or at least when I do marinate fish I do so very briefly, like no more than 1/2 hour. When Copper River salmon comes in season (did I miss it this year? I thought it becomes available in May) I usually make it this way:
Get enough charcoal going to cover half of your grill.
Soak some wood chips of your choice. I prefer Maple wood (some would say that Maple is too strong, but I think Maple works best for this-- preferably wood chips whittled off of a well-seasoned branch from a certain old silver Maple that fell off in the backyard of the first house I ever bought, but of course that may not be available to you, and I think my supply is almost out).
Put filet skin-side down in heavy-duty foil, with the top of the foil open so the filet is exposed to the smoke. Conform the sides of the foil to the filet.
Add a splash of good soy sauce, a little bit (again, just a splash) of white wine or your favorite beer. Squeeze some lime juice on (thin-sliced lime rounds on the salmon if you want to get fancy). The total amount of liquid should not be much, but with the foil conforming to the sides of the filet, it should cover the surface of the salmon, more or less.
Add fresh ground black pepper and either crushed fresh garlic or granulated garlic powder. I prefer fresh garlic for stuff 99% of the time, but for some reason granulated seems to work best here.
Spread coals on half the grill. Drain and add wood chips to coals. Put salmon on cool side of grill. Cover. Keep a close eye so you don’t overcook salmon- it should just flake in the center.
Serve filet by adding to plate, then drizzle the now-reduced sauce over filet. Enjoy.
Closer is “feen zairb.” Neither the “s” nor the “b” are silent there. (And best enjoyed with fresh herbs if you can find all of them — I know chervil is a pain — as those fine herbs lose a lot, and I mean a lot, of flavor through drying. I use to grow chervil and tarragon just for this purpose.)
Agreed, if you want the mixture this strongly flavored. I’ve never found fresh chervil here, even in our well-stocked farmers’ markets. Personally, I find both tarragon and chervil strongly enough flavored that the dried mixture is fine for my purposes. I don’t like to overwhelm the flavor of the fish with herbiness.
Agree with this, too. When I employ the soy treatment, which is only now and then, 30 minutes is the limit. I want to taste the fish!
I’ve only once, a couple months ago, saw it at the local grocery chain and I was absolutely gobsmacked. Of course I picked some right up! And of course, I’ve never seen it since. (And while dried it does lose flavor, it also picks up some … I dunno … weird woody notes that don’t exist in the fresh form. It’s somehow more delicate and lighter fresh than it is in its dried form, yet at the same time more flavorful. Kind of like how fresh parsley and dried parsley taste quite different in their fresh and dried forms. It definitely doesn’t overpower the dish unless you go crazy with it.)
And, yeah, no need to marinate fish more than 30 minutes. Even that is a little longer than what I’d do. I’d stick to 15, 20 tops when doing something like tuna. Alton Brown’s charcoal-starter-seared tuna recommends 1-4 hours, but that’s way too much for me.
Of all the suggestions, I haven’t seen anyone suggest a cedar plank yet. marinate/soak the plank then place the fish on top with your choice of toppings & grill away.
