If you want to create an impressive entrée, love fish and enjoy rich and flavourful food, cook a whole salmon. After it’s trimmed, it presents well and can be spiced up in all sorts of delicious ways, also cooking salmon with the bones in place helps keeps the flesh nice and moist.
If you’re hooked on the idea, methods for cooking the fish include steaming, poaching, roasting and barbecuing it on a wooden plank, or in aluminum foil. As you’ll see by today’s recipes, I’ve chosen the latter three techniques.
In one recipe, I roasted the salmon Asian-style, with spicy Thai curry paste, salty soy sauce, tart lime juice and sweet brown sugar. Ginger, garlic, onion and cilantro also added flavours. Serve the salmon with steamed or fried rice, and steamed or stir-fried vegetables, and you’ll create a nice meal.
In another recipe, I flavoured the salmon margarita-style, using ingredients found in the famous cocktail, such as tequila and citrus juice. I cooked the fish in a foil package on the barbecue. When it was ready and opened, its aroma and taste made me say “olé!”
The salmon would go well with Spanish-style rice and a summery salad, where crisp lettuce is tossed with a light dressing of your choice, and colourful cut vegetables, such as tomatoes, cumbers, radish and carrots.
My last recipe saw me marinate a whole salmon in a maple syrup/black pepper mixture. I then cooked the fish on the barbecue on a soaked-in-cold-water, untreated, cedar plank. The result was pleasingly smoky-tasting fish that was nicely glazed and flavoured with the marinade. Consider serving the fish with coleslaw or potato salad and corn on the cob.
In my recipes, I used salmon that weighed about one to one and a half kilograms when the head was removed. That smaller size of fish will feed four to six and cook relatively quickly. In all recipes, the fish could be a pink salmon, and in two others, it could also be sockeye or coho.
If you’ve forgotten, the old fisherman’s rule of thumb is to allow 10 minutes of cooking time per inch of thickness. To get that thickness, measure the fish at its thickest point when lying it flat on a work surface.
This method seems to work pretty well, but your cooking technique, what you cook the fish on or in, and what temperature you use do affect its accuracy.
Another way to judge when the fish is cooked is to press on it with your finger at its thickest point. If the fish feels soft and spongy, you know it’s not cooked through. If it feels firm, with a tiny bit of give, it should be ready. If the fish feels really firm and the skin and flesh are pulling apart, you know the fish is overcooked.
However, the best way to tell if your salmon is cooked is to insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the flesh. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests that cooked fish should reach an internal temperature of 145 F.
Thai Curry-Roasted Whole Salmon
Sweet, spicy, sour and salty flavours combine to give the salmon an appealing Asian-style taste.
If desired, you could serve the fish with store-bought mango chutney, or fresh chutney you made yourself.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 35 to 40 minutes
Makes: 6 servings
1 (3 lb/1.5 kg) whole sockeye, coho or pink salmon
2 Tbsp green or red Thai curry paste (see Note)
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp chopped fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 medium onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• lime slices for garnish
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a large baking sheet or shallow roasting pan with parchment paper.
Rinse the salmon with cold water and pat dry. Trim off the fins and tail and discard. With a sharp knife, on both sides of the fish, make shallow, diagonal cuts into the skin at one-inch intervals. Place the salmon on the baking sheet or roasting pan.
Place the remaining ingredients, except cilantro and lime slices, in a bowl and whisk well to combine. Brush some of this mixture into the cavity of the fish. Now stuff the cavity with the onions. Brush the remaining curry paste mixture over the fish.
Roast salmon for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cooked through and the internal temperature at its thickest point reaches 145 F on an instant-read thermometer.
As the salmon cooks, baste it a few times with the curry paste mixture that drips into the bottom of the pan.
When it’s cooked, carefully transfer the salmon to a serving platter. Drizzle fish with any juices in the pan. Sprinkle with cilantro, garnish with lime slices, and enjoy.
Note: Thai curry paste is sold in small jars in the Asian foods aisle of most supermarkets.
Maple Pepper Cedar Plank Pink Salmon
Sweet and peppery marinated salmon is given a smoky taste by cooking it on a cedar plank.
Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus soaking and marinating time
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
1 large cedar plank (see Note)
1 (2 to 2 1/2 lb or 1 to 1 1/4 kg) pink salmon
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp coarsely cracked black pepper, or to taste (see Note)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp Dijon mustard
• coarse sea or kosher salt, to taste
1 small onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, halved and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• lemon slices for garnish
Submerge the cedar plank in cold water and keep it there until you’re ready to cook the fish.
Trim the tail and fins from the fish. Rinse the fish with cold water and pat dry.
Combine the maple syrup, pepper, lemon juice, mustard and salt in a sided dish just large enough to hold the fish. With a sharp knife, make shallow, diagonal cuts into the skin at one-inch intervals on both sides of the fish. Set the fish in the dish and turn several times to coat it with the maple-syrup mixture. Brush some of the maple mixture into the cavity of the fish. Cover, refrigerate and marinate the salmon for an hour, turning occasionally.
Preheat barbecue to medium-high (about 450 F in the chamber). Dry the side of the plank the fish will be placed on. Set the fish on the plank. Stuff the cavity with the onions and garlic. Brush the fish with half the marinade in the dish. Set the plank on one side of the barbecue. Turn the heat off underneath the fish; leave the other side of the barbecue set to medium-high. Close the lid and cook the fish 10 minutes. Brush the fish with the remaining marinade. Close the lid again and cook fish 15 to 20 minutes more, or until cooked through and its internal temperature at its thickest point reaches 145 F on an instant-read thermometer. (Keep a spray bottle of water handy while the fish cooks, just in case the board ignites.)
Set the plank on a large platter. Sprinkle with parsley, garnish with lemon slices, and serve.
Note: Cedar planks are sold at most supermarkets and seafood stores. The one I used was 16 inches long. To coarsely crack black peppercorns, use the coarsest setting on your pepper grinder. You can also coarsely crack it by setting whole peppercorns on a cutting board and rolling a heavy skillet over the peppercorns, back and forth while pressing.
Margarita-style Foil-Barbecued Salmon
In this recipe, you’ll discover that ingredients used to flavour a margarita, such as tequila and citrus juice, also work well with salmon.
Preparation time: 20 minutes, plus marinating time
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes: 4 servings
1 (2 to 2 1/2 lb or 1 to 1.25 kg) whole pink or other salmon
1/4 cup tequila
1 tsp finely grated lime zest
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 large lime, sliced
1 large orange, sliced
Trim the tail and fins from the fish, and rinse it with cold water and pat dry.
With a sharp knife, make shallow, diagonal cuts into the skin at one-inch intervals on both sides of the fish.
Combine the tequila, citrus zest and juice, and sugar in a sided dish just large enough to hold the fish. Add the salmon and turn to coat. Brush some of the marinade into the cavity of the fish. Cover, marinate and refrigerate salmon for one hour, turning occasionally.
Preheat barbecue to medium-high (about 450 F in the chamber). Slightly overlap two, two-foot long sheets of aluminum foil. Set a third two-foot long sheet of foil on top and in the centre of the first two sheets.
Arrange the lime and orange slices in a row down the centre of the third sheet of foil. Set the fish on the lime and orange slices. Spoon the marinade in the dish over the fish. Drizzle fish with melted butter; season with salt and pepper.
Fold the foil over the fish and crimp at the top to seal. Place the foil package on one side of the barbecue. Turn the heat off directly underneath the fish; leave the other side set to medium-high. Close the lid and cook the fish 25 to 30 minutes, or until cooked through and the internal temperature of the fish at its thickest point reaches 145 F on an instant-read thermometer.
Serve the salmon from the foil, or, for a fancier presentation, carefully transfer the fish and its juices to a large platter and serve it from there.
Eric Akis is the author of the hardcover book Everyone Can Cook Everything. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
