Salmon

[piperdbh]

Lemon and pepper is good on shark too.

So is Mountain Dew.

[sydnie7]

Absolutely love salmon in all its variety. Growing up, we spent summers on the Olympic Peninsula and caught our own. Friends of my grandparents sometimes camped with us and brought their smoker along. Les and Ella Boxley were a wonderful pair of characters who told hilarious stories of their adventures during Prohibition (mostly involving the consequences of having to bottle up and hide a batch too early based on reports that the Revenuers were sniffing around). Anyway, Les packed along cherry wood for the smoker and Ella had a brining recipe that she took to her grave, sadly. Best smoked salmon ever.

Nowadays I have a variety of baked and pan-seared salmon recipes for the frozen filets that I keep in stock. Also there's a little restaurant in Carlsbad Village that serves a mean salmon sandwich -- grilled filet on a croissant with nothing but Major Gray's chutney. Fabulous!

That chicken I have out to roast tonight is looking less appetizing by the minute. . .

[chrisupyonder]

Fresh/frozen salmon. In tinfoil with a knob of butter then top of oven very hot for 15/20 mins.

Or grilled very hot so just starting to go crisp on outside but inside soft and moist.
With rice (or boiled potatoes with skins on, not mashed with butter dropped on top when served) plus green veg.

Smoked. Just eat it with salad. Any sauce will smother the taste. More I think as a starter or light lunch with crusty bread.

I think cooking in any kind of sauce just kills the flavour of the salmon. I have never had fish out of a tin and never would.

Chris.

[Jock Scot]

Thinly sliced smoked salmon, with scrambled egg, with a dash of lemon on the salmon, black pepper and washed down with Talisker(no other whisky has the right flavour) ------for breakfast.

[AKScott]

The best grilled salmon I ever had was on the Oregon coast. Caught that day, hot bed of hardwood coals and then a bunch of green alder wood on the hot coals. Amazing. The "wrong" alder tree for that trick grows in Alaska.

Most popular at my table is a filet slathered in room temp butter, than several drained and rinsed capers stuck into the butter, then thinly sliced lemon to cover. Cover with tin foil. Slow oven, 325°F or so for 20-25 minutes until just barely cooked. Rest still covered in tin foil about five minutes before serving.

The main trick to baking salmon I have found is to not overcook it. Pull it from the oven just a touch underdone and let it coast out to cooked through off the heat.

Another less popular variant is coat the filet with room temp butter, and then sprinkle liberally with cayenne pepper. Bake as above. Quite spicy at the table, fully developed flavor by the time the lemon caper salmon is gone, but headed for ring of fire territory if left until morning.

[chrisupyonder]

Thinly sliced smoked salmon, with scrambled egg, with a dash of lemon on the salmon, black pepper and washed down with Talisker(no other whisky has the right flavour) ------for breakfast.

Well what else would a country gentleman have for breakfast!

Chris.

[Jock Scot]

Well what else would a country gentleman have for breakfast!

Chris.

If I may venture a tad off course to answer?

Well, how about cold ham( carved off the bone), two poached eggs and a pint of Guinness?

or,

Kedgeree washed down with champagne?

or,

Devilled Kidneys and a stiff brandy to lubricate the throat on a cold morning?

or,

Kippers washed down with whisky?

or, these days due to "orders",

dry toast----perhaps an oatcake, honey and --------------weak milk-less tea!

[mayberry]

I'm a big fan of salmon, and a great appreciator of all smoked fish. I notice that there may be some folks reading this thread who don't realize that there are two completely different ways of smoking fish, including salmon. There is "cold-smoked", which when referring to salmon includes lox, Nova, and any other variety that looks sort of tomato-like, translucent and bright pink. It's not actually cooked, just slightly dried and cured with a cold smoke, far from the actual fire. It's usually served with cream cheese and bagels, sometimes capers, onions, or lemon. It's also used to great effect in pasta sauces.

Then there's "hot-smoked", which is what you get from a home smoker. This is the result of a slow cooking over a smoky fire. The fish is opaque, lighter pink, and looks cooked. It is often eaten as main portion of a meal, the same way any other cooked fish might be. Other fish that are often hot-smoked are whitefish, trout, herring, mackerel, and eel.

This has made me so hungry!
Cheers,
John

[Tobus]

I love fresh salmon baked with any kind of seasoning. Like AKScott said, though, it has to come out before it's done. It will finish internally cooking on its own.

I also love salmon pie, using canned salmon. Mix a can of salmon with a can of cream of mushroom soup, some diced onion, 2 tbsp of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp of lemon juice, and 2 eggs. Put some grated sharp cheddar in the bottom of a pie crust and fill the shell with the salmon mix. Top with more cheese and bake at 350 degrees F until the cheese is browned and the crust is golden (45 minutes to 1 hour). It is WONDERFUL. Probably could do it with fresh salmon, but I've never tried.

*edited recipe to add ingredients I had left out...

[beloitpiper]

Islay style:
In the pan with butter. Pour in some Ardbeg and let it reduce a bit. Flip the salmon, add heavy cream and pepper. Stir the cream with the whisky to keep it from burning. Plate and garnish with rosemary!