Okay, I know it's April 10th and it really should be spring (or very close to it), but it's NOT. The thermometer on my deck is shivering at 12 degrees and a howling wind is making it feel more like 12 below zero. But I'm not complaining because as my Dad likes to remind me every time I do complain about our weather, "You DO know you live in Alaska, right?" Yeah, Dad, I KNOW.
So...I am choosing to escape into the memory of the few days of spring tease weather we had a couple weeks ago. Bright sunshine and mid-forty temps with not even a breeze. Beautiful, perfect weather to fire up the grill and have a some friends over. We invited a few of Doug's co-workers and their lovely spouses. We supplied dinner, they brought wine. This bunch we affectionately call our "boat trash" friends and it's a major feat of logistics just to get everyone together since most work rotating schedules on various boats. It was the weekend of the famous Homer Winter King Salmon Tournament, with 732 anglers participating. First prize of $15,000 (plus another $25,000 won in side bets!) went to Leszek Kuligowski of Anchorage for his 35.1-pound king. In total 162 king salmon were caught that day, so in their honor I grilled red salmon (Sockeye) instead.
GRILLED SALMON THREE WAYS
3 skin-on salmon fillets (about 11/2 lbs. each)
For the lemon-scented fillet:
2 lemons
olive oil
sea salt and pepper
For the Pesto fillet:
1/2 cup Spinach Pesto (see March 18th post, "Spring Tonic" Spinach Pesto)
For the Mustard Barbecue fillet:
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
3 TBS honey
1 TBS brown sugar
3 TBS rice-wine vinegar or cider vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
few dashes Tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Whisk all ingredients together, cover and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight.
Prepare the salmon: Gently pat the fillets dry with paper towels. Remove any pin bones. Use a sharp knife to make crossways slices about 2 inches apart stopping short of cutting through the skin.
For the lemon-scented fillet, slice one lemon in half length-way then cut across into thin half moon slices. Lightly coat the fillet with olive oil, generously season with salt and pepper, then insert slices of lemon into slits in fillet.
For the Pesto fillet, season with salt and pepper then generously slather with Spinach Pesto, being sure to get it into the slits as well.
For the Mustard barbecue fillet: Brush on prepared sauce being sure to get it into the slits. Brush more sauce on halfway during cooking.
Heat your grill to medium hot, place fillets skin side down and grill until the middle flakes easily, about 20 to 25 minutes. All grills are different so keep a close eye on the fish and take it off the heat about a minute before you think it's done. The residual heat will finish the cooking and your fish will not dry out. Slice remaining lemon to garnish the salmon. Share with your own beloved "boat trash".
