Awesome! The region I live in now is known for its coffee & salmon. I'll assume everyone has their own coffee recipes :D
Broiled or Grilled or Sautéed Salmon Fillets (short cook)
Prep : 20 minutes for 4-6 fillets. Unless you have mad skills at skinning & deboning!
Cook time : 5 minutes give or take a couple
Serves : However many fillets you make
Ingredients : Salmon fillets, salt, pepper.
2 things you probably already know...but since not everyone eats salmon (or fish) a lot, I always throw this part out there :
All the same, all very simple, the #1 key is not to overcook it! High heat, maybe 5-7 minutes at most. Sometimes just 2 or 3 minutes if it's a thinner fillet or you're cooking with the fire of Hades. Just enough to "flake". As soon as the fish flakes with a fork lightly, it's done! The time is mostly the preparation to heat, not heating itself. The only time you really want fish to cook for a long time is if you're braising it in a sauce, so it soaks up the saucy flavors.
#2 Key = There will be a dark stripe running down the middle of the fillet. It's called the 'blood vein', but it's not a vein. This is the tract where the fish sends all of its wastes to its intestines to poop out. It's mostly old, rancid, oils... And it tastes "fishy" (yucky), along with dead blood cells, and chemicals/toxins/pollutants from the water it breathes in. It's gross. Either remove it now (kind of a pain) or, after cooking, use a spoon and scrape it off. Better to remove before cooking so none of the flavor leeches into the meat, but easier to remove afterward. Reddish brown while raw, grayish black after cooking. I use a sharpened Ice cream scoop when raw. A regular spoon when cooked. Lemon & dill hide this flavor. Neither is needed if you remove the stripe before serving. No stripe & the entire flavor will be sweet & almost creamy. <grin> But if you like lemon & dill for its own merits, feel free to add after!
Salmon Fillets...
- Flip over & run a fillet knife between the skin & flesh (or have your monger skin it for you!).
- Remove dark stripe / blood vein. (Optional now, or do after cooking)
- Rinse with water, pat dry.
- Run finger along surface. Near the bottom will be a thin line of many bones. Cut it off*.
- Run finger along surface for widely spaced bones along the top. Pull out with tweezers.
- Drizzle with oil, & sprinkle over salt & pepper
- If grilling or broiling, place in dish or on a wet board, very near heat. If sautéing, place in lightly oiled pan on high heat.
- When it starts to change color / get opaque (1-3 minutes) flip it. That's your halfway point.
- When it flakes (sections of meat start to separate through), pull from heat & plate.
- Serve plain, or drizzle over any of your favorite sauces, spices, or herbs.
* Underneath this thin line of bones is usually a thin triangle of flesh about a finger long, and 2-3 fingers wide. If you don't want to waste it, cut the line of bones from it, as well as the main fillet. It cooks in seconds, it's so thin (cook's treat!), but we usually freeze these pieces to make "salmon candy" (bite sized thin smoked salmon jerky). It's so thin it soaks up all the sugars from the brine, and if smoked, becomes almost translucent. Alternatively, once the bone strip is cut off, feed to the cat ;).
Smokey Ginger Garlic Cream Sauced Salmon on the Grill (long cook)
Prep : 20 minutes + 20 minutes
Cook : 30-40 minutes
Overall : about 1 hour to 1 hour & 30 minutes
Ingredients : Salmon fillets, butter, ginger, garlic, cream, salt & pepper.
- Prep the salmon as above. 2nd. Get the sauce going 1st. Takes about the same amount of time. 2 birds, 1 stone (20 min, instead of 40)
- In a sauté pan, melt a stick or two of butter and add several (5-10) smashed garlic cloves, and a few inches (3-6inches, 6-12cm) of fresh ginger sliced thin. Don't worry about peeling the ginger, it's going in the bin, not being eaten. The variations here are a "how much sauce do you want & how intense do you want the flavor?")
- Simmer away on low for about 20 minutes to extract the garlic & ginger oils into the butter. I just let it go until I'm done prepping the salmon
- Strain out the ginger & garlic
- Add about a pint or two of heavy whipping cream
- Reduce, reduce, reduce. (By about 1/3) Whisk, whisk, whisk. No flour needed, the whisking and reduction make it as thick as you need. Pain in the neck, though. I suggest beer &/or wine & good company to make it less obnoxious.
- Chill, if possible (to slow how fast the salmon cooks) I often forget to leave time. Works either way, but works better -flavors the fish more- if it's cold to start. 10min is fine. I usually leave it to go have a beer and sit on my Tuckus outside with people for about half an hour when I do remember (or my feet hurt, and people can durn well wait)
- Make a few tinfoil "boats" or packets.
- Place salmon fillets into boats/packets
- Pour over sauce to cover
- Wiggle the fish about (I'm fond of fattening sauces, my fillets all but swim in it)
- Place open packets on upper shelf of BBQ
- Close lid to trap as much smoke as possible
- After about 20 minutes, wiggle fish about (ahem, check doneness) Feel free to stand about the BBQ looking very serious, and engage in grill related banter... Or go read a book in the loo. It'll cook, with or without you. But darnit, it's your grill.
- Check every 5-10 minutes after (feel free to use power words if you're hungry, and hey haven't flaked, yet) until they're flakey.
- Serve with bread (to soak up sauce) and grilled veg.
* Quick tip on Blood Vein... If braising in a sauce, sear the sucker on the blood vein side real quick on a hot pan (about 30 seconds) and scrape it off before cooking it in the sauce.
