I love this fish, even though it is widely touted for being a healthy food. It tastes good! That is, unless, it is overcooked. Overcooked salmon loses most of its flavor. So, I don't fix it as often as I'd like because I'm scared I'll overcook it and I've done just that a lot of times. The other day, though, I got it right. I could have and will do more to it in the future but first, I had to master the "basics". If you've had some of the same problems I've had here's one of my "BASIC" approaches for you to play with. Here's what I cooked up:
Accidentally Wonderful Salmon
Ingredients:
4 Salmon "steaks" about 1-1.5" thick, approximately 6 oz. each
1 Cup soy sauce
1 Cup orange juice
2 Tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp minced garlic
Cooking Spray (olive or canola oil recommended)
Place salmon in a baking dish or plastic bag, skin side down.
Mix soy sauce, orange juice, ginger, and garlic, reserve 1/2 cup.
Pour unreserved mixture over salmon and marinate for one to two hours.
Cooking:
I used GrillGrates on my Memphis set to 350 degrees. This creates a searing temperature at the grids that is much higher but not "beef steak" hot.
Pour off the marinade and spray the skin side of the salmon with a good coat of cooking oil spray
Place steaks on grid, skin side down, for four minutes (turning 45 degrees at 2 minutes if you want pretty marks). While skin side cooks, baste fleshy side with reserved marinade.
At the 4 minute mark, spray fleshy side lightly with cooking oil spray and carefully turn steaks over. Grill for 3 minutes (again turning 45 degrees at 1.5 minutes if you want gorgeous marks). Afternote: Member akjeff has lots of experience with salmon and recommends 135-140 internal temperature as measured with a Thermapen or Maverick PT 100
Remove steaks to serving dish, placing fleshy side up. Baste with more marinade while still hot. Serve as soon as possible.
My results (after all these years and messing up a lot of otherwise perfectly good fish) were just what I've been looking for: Juicy, tender, flaky salmon with just a hint of the marinade ingredients and just a kiss of grilled flavor (thanks to the GrillGrates -- love those things).
Next? Remember this is one of my "BASIC" recipe/approaches and you and I both can make it better so long as we don't get too far off the tracks. I'm thinking of a moderately sweet rub before the marinade. I'm also thinking of a thicker "glaze" following the cook, maybe utilizing some maple syrup (but not too much). This is a good base for some creativity with some other fish types, too. Right now I'm just liking cooking salmon more often!
