2 Salmon fillets
one lime for each fillet
fresh cilantro
dill
Two cloves of fresh garlic
one tbsp olive oil for each fillet
a pinch of sage
half a cup of salt
Prep time: 15 minutes plus 1.5 hours plus 24 hours
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Fish is so good for you. I don't eat near enough fish, but when I do I usually love it. Most fish anyways...salmon not so much. As I travel this journey into foodism I find myself watching the food network (food tv up here in Canada) substantially more than I used to. A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through the channels and landed on food tv while license to grill was on. The guy was going to smoke some large salmon steaks so I watched, as salmon's not anything I've spent much time cooking.
See, I'm not a fan of salmon usually; I like the flavour but I always find it drier textured than I like, so I don't eat much. While watching license to grill, Rob Rainford got me excited about salmon; he loves grilling and food and is very compelling to watch because he has so much enthusiasm. Anyways, the hook he got me with was that he brined the salmon first. Brine is, as it sounds, salt water, and the thing that caught my attention is this little tip he threw in there: to determine whether there's enough salt in your brine, drop an egg in. If it floats, it's briney enough. Fantastic! Who knew??? Anyways, after that he gave the salmon a bit of cilantro and some lime and then smoked it.
So I altered it a bit, since I don't have a barbeque I can smoke things with, and frankly, I like to experiment a bit. First off, I went to the local grocer and bought myself two atlantic salmon fillets and some cilantro. I bought the atlantic prepackaged ones because they were slightly cheaper than coho and if I didn't like this I didn't want to waste too much money. I got home and filled a deep saucepan about half full of water, then proceeded to dump salt in. I mixed it up with a wooden spoon and then tossed a raw egg in. Success! It floated. So I put the salmon in the water (after putting the egg back in the fridge of course), popped the lid on and threw it in the fridge. Rob said on the show for an hour and a half, but I left mine in for more like two hours, as I got sucked into a wicked game of civilizations IV.
I pulled the salmon out of the fridge and blotted the water off with some paper towel, as per Rob's instructions. Then I strayed. I started by dumping some dill on each fillet. At first I tried to just spread it on, but as the brining made the fish swell up a certain amount and get quite porous, I decided to make it a dill rub instead. So I rubbed in the dill all over the fish. After doing this I sliced up my limes, and put four slices on each fillet (basically one lime for each). I squeezed the juice out of the ends onto them as well. Normally I don't like cilantro very much, and I was a bit nervous about putting it on. But, as I figured I'm trying new things, I figured what the hell, and put a healthy amount on each fillet. A note for all you cilantro haters: It works on salmon, it really really does! I then took some dried sage and sprinkled it onto each fillet. I put both dressed fillets on a single plate (and by the way, they looked awesomely yummy at this point; wish I had taken a photo!) and covered them in the fridge over night.
The next night I got home from work and decided to grill these puppies up. I pulled them out of the fridge and removed the lime slices and the cilantro. Of course where the lime was it was slightly cooked already. I took my garlic press and crushed a clove onto each fillet, spreading it around a bit with my fingers. I heated up my electric grill and then threw the fillets on. I drizzled the top with a bit of olive oil, cooked for 5 minutes and flipped them. I drizzled more olive oil on the new tops and cooked for another 5, and finally flipped them over one more time for 2 minutes. I dunno if this was right or not, but it worked.
I've made this meal twice now, once just for myself and once for me and Ruth. When I had it myself I served it with a small green salad, and with Ruth we had a potato salad with it. I found the salmon to be moist and tasty, and when I got some cilantro or garlic it just exploded with yumminess. The one drawback is that the flavour tends to end up in pockets, and I'd like to get it more even. Any thoughts on that?
I will cook this again and continue to experiment with it. Perhaps next time I'll foil it up and cook it in the oven instead of on the grill?
one lime for each fillet
fresh cilantro
dill
Two cloves of fresh garlic
one tbsp olive oil for each fillet
a pinch of sage
half a cup of salt
Prep time: 15 minutes plus 1.5 hours plus 24 hours
Cooking time: 12 minutes
Fish is so good for you. I don't eat near enough fish, but when I do I usually love it. Most fish anyways...salmon not so much. As I travel this journey into foodism I find myself watching the food network (food tv up here in Canada) substantially more than I used to. A couple of weeks ago I was flipping through the channels and landed on food tv while license to grill was on. The guy was going to smoke some large salmon steaks so I watched, as salmon's not anything I've spent much time cooking.
See, I'm not a fan of salmon usually; I like the flavour but I always find it drier textured than I like, so I don't eat much. While watching license to grill, Rob Rainford got me excited about salmon; he loves grilling and food and is very compelling to watch because he has so much enthusiasm. Anyways, the hook he got me with was that he brined the salmon first. Brine is, as it sounds, salt water, and the thing that caught my attention is this little tip he threw in there: to determine whether there's enough salt in your brine, drop an egg in. If it floats, it's briney enough. Fantastic! Who knew??? Anyways, after that he gave the salmon a bit of cilantro and some lime and then smoked it.
So I altered it a bit, since I don't have a barbeque I can smoke things with, and frankly, I like to experiment a bit. First off, I went to the local grocer and bought myself two atlantic salmon fillets and some cilantro. I bought the atlantic prepackaged ones because they were slightly cheaper than coho and if I didn't like this I didn't want to waste too much money. I got home and filled a deep saucepan about half full of water, then proceeded to dump salt in. I mixed it up with a wooden spoon and then tossed a raw egg in. Success! It floated. So I put the salmon in the water (after putting the egg back in the fridge of course), popped the lid on and threw it in the fridge. Rob said on the show for an hour and a half, but I left mine in for more like two hours, as I got sucked into a wicked game of civilizations IV.
I pulled the salmon out of the fridge and blotted the water off with some paper towel, as per Rob's instructions. Then I strayed. I started by dumping some dill on each fillet. At first I tried to just spread it on, but as the brining made the fish swell up a certain amount and get quite porous, I decided to make it a dill rub instead. So I rubbed in the dill all over the fish. After doing this I sliced up my limes, and put four slices on each fillet (basically one lime for each). I squeezed the juice out of the ends onto them as well. Normally I don't like cilantro very much, and I was a bit nervous about putting it on. But, as I figured I'm trying new things, I figured what the hell, and put a healthy amount on each fillet. A note for all you cilantro haters: It works on salmon, it really really does! I then took some dried sage and sprinkled it onto each fillet. I put both dressed fillets on a single plate (and by the way, they looked awesomely yummy at this point; wish I had taken a photo!) and covered them in the fridge over night.
The next night I got home from work and decided to grill these puppies up. I pulled them out of the fridge and removed the lime slices and the cilantro. Of course where the lime was it was slightly cooked already. I took my garlic press and crushed a clove onto each fillet, spreading it around a bit with my fingers. I heated up my electric grill and then threw the fillets on. I drizzled the top with a bit of olive oil, cooked for 5 minutes and flipped them. I drizzled more olive oil on the new tops and cooked for another 5, and finally flipped them over one more time for 2 minutes. I dunno if this was right or not, but it worked.
I've made this meal twice now, once just for myself and once for me and Ruth. When I had it myself I served it with a small green salad, and with Ruth we had a potato salad with it. I found the salmon to be moist and tasty, and when I got some cilantro or garlic it just exploded with yumminess. The one drawback is that the flavour tends to end up in pockets, and I'd like to get it more even. Any thoughts on that?
I will cook this again and continue to experiment with it. Perhaps next time I'll foil it up and cook it in the oven instead of on the grill?
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