Salmon HELP

[Natanni]

We are NOT fish eaters. We will eat an occaisonal tuna sandwich, maybe tuna hotdish, but neither my husband or myself really could stomach fish. We had a bad experience once with some salmon being prepared at a friends house, and the smell was horribly overwhelming. Even my daughter's ponytail holders needed to be washed as they smelled like it. Due to Nathan's extremely high cholestrol history, we are going to try and incorporate Omega vitamins and eat salmon once a week. Can anyone give me some preparing ideas? I guess I need help all the way around...can you cook it on the BBQ? Can it be marinated? Christina gave me one wonderful idea on another post, with some herbs and lemon....I just need to mask the fish taste as much as possible! What do you cook to go with it? Where to purchase? I understand it is much better to buy wild vs buy farm, do I get this at the meat market? General grocery store? THANK YOU!!

 

[Christina]

This is how I cook my salmon.

This is how I cook my salmon.

Natanni,

I buy my salmon at Trader Joe's and always buy wild. At TJ's they sell portion size salmon. I don't know if you have a TJ's where you live, but I am sure there is a place where you can buy wild salmon.
Turn on the broiler. Brush the salmon with a little Olive oil and sprinkle with lemon/pepper. Put it in a well greased oven safe broiler pan. Broil it for approximately 10 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of the salmon. Keep checking so you don't over cook the salmon as it then becomes dry. (not good)
Garnish with fresh lemon. A baked potato and an organic spring green vegetable salad goes well with this. And don't forget the red wine.. YUM!!
Hope you like it.

Hugs,

PS..Fish is NOT suppose to smell. If it does, throw it out because it is bad. Never, never eat spoiled fish or meats. You will get a bad case of food poisoning and that can kill you.

 

[geebee]

We love this salmon recipe - use about a 6 ounce filet for each serving:

Heat 2 Tbl. olive oil in saute pan. Quickly sear salmon on all sides - remove to shallow oven proof casserole. Turn off heat but, while oil is still hot, saute 2 Tbl. (for 2 servings) minced garlic for about 30 seconds.

Spread garlic over salmon filets. Sprinkle with dry or fresh dill. Pour 1 cup low sodium chicken broth around filets. Cook in 375 over for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily.

Place fish on bed of wild rice or angel hair pasta. Pour some of the cooking broth over fish and rice or pasta making sure some of the garlic is included.

Sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving or serve with lemon wedges and squeeze juice over fish before eating.

 

[Nancy]

Emeril had salmon on yesterday, so I thought I would search his site, you won't believe all the recipes.

http://www.emerils.com/recipes/search.html?keywords=salmon&searchsubmit.x=10&searchsubmit.y=11

One thing I always do when cooking any fresh fish is to rinse it good under some running water. I find that the dried secretions on the fish that accumulate even in the short time from market to home can make the fish very strong. Rinsing helps a lot.

Another thing that I do is to skin the fish. I know there are many who would rather cook with the skin on, but to me, it is way too fishy.

Here's another tip which you will love. When preparing fish, garlic or onions--you know how the smell lingers on your hands forever--well, you can get a little metal bar in most kitchen supply stores which you rub around your hands under running water, and like magic, the smell disappears. No kidding. The one I have is called Fresh Fingers. It's stainless steel.

You can also have the same effect if you have a stainless steel sink or faucet, just turn on the water, wet your hands and rub them over the stainless steel, the smell will be gone.

Don't ask me how it works, it's just enough to know that it does.

 

[Praline]

Nancy,

Nancy,

I have a stainless steel sink..I will have to try that this week when I cook fish.

 

[geebee]

Nancy,

Thanks for bringing up rinsing and skinning the salmon. I do both before preparing it for the recipe above but I forgot to mention it. I remove the skin and then I rinse the salmon well and wrap it in paper towels while I mince the garlic and get everything else ready.

 

[Natanni]

Oh, you guys are so great!!! Thank you heaps for this help!!!

Okay, few questions

Skinning fish? I didn't even know it came with the skin still on Do people eat the skin??? How does it come? Can it be frozen? Portion size + about 6 0z then? I LOVE garlic, so this will help too...gotcha on the wild rice, baked potato, and angel hair pasta, YEAH...PASTA!

Gina--does the searing just turn it white or should it be golden brown?

Again, thank you guys so much. You guys don't know how much this has helped me! We really want to make a serious effort with this. Went through all this OHS, and would really like to take care of all the plumbing for the heart too....we tried to go darn near vegetarian once for about 6 months like his parents, but it was a nightmare.

 

[geebee]

I think you might be able to find salmon filets skinned in some markets but you will probably pay more. If you have a sharp boning knife, the skin will come off easily. Salmon skin is eaten in Japanese cuisine but I have never developed a taste for it.
Salmon is best fresh but I believe some markets buy it frozen and thaw before selling. Ask the person behind the counter as to whether it has been frozen. Often the tag will say.
I prefer wild salmon but it is hard to come by in Cincinnati. I usually buy farm raised Atlantic salmon but occasionally can find wild sockeye which is fabulous.
I love my recipe with lots of garlic as I am a garlic lover also. I tame it down for guests but, if just my SO and me, there is no such thing as too much garlic.

 

[Christina L]

A great way to eat salmon

A great way to eat salmon

is by making salmon patties - adding crackers and egg to the mixture and some spices and frying it up in a pan or baking the patties. This really masks the fishy taste if you don't particularly care for salmon.

Of course, as Christina said - buy wild salmon fresh and that also goes for canned salmon. Only buy quality salmon. Farmed salmon is fed yucky stuff.

As for recipes for salmon patties, just get on the web and there will be tons to choose from. Bon appetit!

P.S. There are many, many prepared sauces sold in supermarkets now for any kind of meat or fish. Just keep testing until you find one you like. We like a prepared honey mustard sauce on our salmon.

Christina L

 

[Nancy]

I skin fish this way. Put the skin side down with the fleshy side up. With a sharp boning knife get a little bit of the skin loose from the flesh, then hold that piece of skin with a paper towel to get a good grip. You should be able to remove the skin quite easily this way, just go slowly with smooth strokes.

And always check for small bones. They can hide quite nicely, especially in some cuts of salmon. I pick up the filet and really poke it all over to make sure.

 

[maka]

Hi Natanni

Yes you can BBQ salmon. I had it for my friends not long ago and it was wonderful.
RInse it well and dry it. Squeeze some lemon little salt and marinate in vodka overnight. Barbecue skin down

another one that I like. rinse, dry and put some lemon. marinate in in teriyaky sauce and a little brown sugar a couple of hours or overnight. bake for about 20 minutes skin down.
when you eat the salmon, the skin separates very easily

 

[tobagotwo]

Just a note...There's nothing wrong with skinning the fish, but a significant amount of the Omega-3 goes into the wastebasket with the skin.

Salmon is still an excellent meal, both in flavor and being low in bad fats vs. red meats. The wild fish have been found to have lower levels of environmental contaminants in them.

Best wishes,

 

[swim mom]

We marinade our salmon and BBQ it. The marinade is for roughly 1 lb of salmon. (2-8oz fillets)

Bourbon Salmon

1/4 c pineapple juice
1-2T soy sauce
2t bourbon or bourbon flavoring ( I don't usually use either but have used rum before)
1/4c brown sugar
1/4t black pepper
1/8t garlic powder (I use more or fresh garlic)

The recipie says to make sure the skin is removed. Marinade for several hours before grilling. Grill at med high to high heat for 5-7 minutes per side for 8-oz fillets. Brush with marinade frequently while cooking. I also cook it on my electric indoor grill when I can't cook it outside. My girls like this eventhough they don't really like fish. I also sometimes get a good BBQ sauce and marinade it in that.

I have to find flavors my two non fish eaters will eat.

 

[Ross]

Salmon--YUCK POOWEE.

Go for Grouper. Light and not real fishy tasting.

 

[Nancy]

Another good fish is monkfish. You can make it taste almost like lobster. We also like catfish, flounder, filet of sole and smelts. We LOVE calamari.

 

[Natanni]

Grouper? What's grouper?? Oh my, I have LOTS to learn about in the fish dept. And Calamari? Sounds like a Hawaiin FISH

Alrighty, both my daughter (the cook in the family, 9 year old cook....)and I have read all the posts and we are printing them off! Will attempt to purchase our first salmon on Wednesday, to prepare on Thursday. Thank you all so much, what great help! Wish us LUCK!

 

[Lynette]

Grilled Asian Salmon

Grilled Asian Salmon

Hope I'm not too late to enter a contender...this is my favorite salmon marinade:

1 T sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
2 t miniced fresh ginger
1 t rice wine vinegar
2 salmon fillets

Combine ingredients in a plastic zip lock back, marinade refrigerated for 30 min to 1 hour. Grill or broil, about 5 min. per side.

 

[Ross]

Grouper has a very mild fish flavor and is good with just about any topping you like from tartar sauce to just plain butter. Calamari is squid. It is great as long as you don't overcook it. Deep fry it for a minute or two at 360 and your good to go. Calamari runs 3.99 a lb in stores around here and 1 lb is good for one perhaps two persons. Grouper is like $6.99 a pound which is generally 2 nice size fillets.

 

[Peggy in Alaska]

Salmon

Salmon

Ok, the "salmon" expert is posting - after all, I live in Alaska! You can marinade it in soy sauce, garlic, and saki. Then grill it. I have one of those fish grilling trays so that the fish doesn't fall through the grill openings.

Another way is to brush it with barbeque sauce mixed with whiskey.

I also just buy the lawry's bottled marinades - there are several that go well with salmon - carribean jerk, teriyaki, just to name a couple.

AND I always skin it - it can be fishy if you cook it with the skin on. I get it out of the freezer and let it thaw a little while. While stil frozen, get a sharp knife and start the edge of the skin, it will pull off pretty easily when still slightly frozen.

A good friend always liked to do his salmon whole - just stuffed the cavity with bacon, onions , lemon juice and garlic - wrapped it up in tin foil and threw the whole thing into the barbeque grill! It was always delicious and if leftovers, pull it off the bones, mix with dill and mayo and make salmon salad sandwiches! Delish!

 

[geebee]

Ross,
I love grouper but it is hard to get here. I have special ordered it but the price was like $9/lb.
Have been able to get some good cod lately and that is a reasonable subsitute although not as mild as grouper. Tilapia is a very mild fish but very delicate (like sole) so it is harder to work with. Tilapia is sometimes more available than grouper but still harder to find than salmon, cod, red trout and catfish - catfish is a biggie here but I do not like it.