Whole Salmon how-to

[doggirl]

I'd like to cook a whole salmon for a party, but I've never made the attempt before. I see lots of differing directions in cookbooks for poaching, ideas for grilling, etc.

Do you have a great method I can try? I want it to both be delicious and to look pretty when it's on a buffet. Please share your secrets!!

Thanks.

[jackal10]

The secret is not to overcook. Fish needs to be no more than 45C/115F.

Forget poaching. Easiest is to wrap it (gutted, washed but otherwise whole) in oiled aluminium foil, Add a splash of white wine, some herbs (parley, dill spring onion), salt and pepper. Seal the foil and put in a medium oven for half an hour or so.

Of its very big curve it artistically so it fits in the pan and looks like its swimming.

A digital themometer really helps here, and they are not expensive.

Take out of the oven and cool to room temperature. It will be fairly fragile, so handle gently. Strip the skin, put on a big dish. Up to you whether to leave on the scales or not. Decorate with cucumber slices, and if you like piped mayo. You can use the decoration to hide the messy bits or where you broke it. You can add sea-like decorations to he rest of the dish. Serve with a good hollandaise or mayonnaise...

If you plan to serve it warm or hot then salmon is pastry (with ginger and raisins) is a good version. Get the fishmonger to skin and fillet the salmon. Roll out two sheets of puff pastry bigger then the salmon. Good quality shop bouht pastry is OK, especially if you give it another couple of turns with real butter. Make up some green forcemeat (lots of soft herbs, chopped onions sweated in butter, bread crumbs, and for this ginger and raisins.

On the sheet of pastry put a layer of the stuffing, one side of the salmon, another layer of stuffing, the other side of the salmon, another layer of stuffing. Eggwash all round. Put the second sheet of puff pastry on top, and seal round. CUt it out into a fish shape - tail at one end, head at the other. With aknife draw in the hea and eye, and make scales all along with a small round pastry cutter. Eggwash

45mins in a hot oven or until the pastry is brown.

[Jensen]

I had a salmon last spring that was absolutely fabulous. We were on a racing tour and we stopped in Bellingham WA to visit a friend of my travel buddy. Let's call this friend Yvonne (which is especially a propos since that is her name).

Yvonne bought large fillet of wild Pacific salmon; it was pretty much half the fish (hey, do you think that fish was spatchcocked?). She laid it skin-side down on a double thickness of aluminum foil, sprinkled it with lemon pepper and salt, and then covered it entirely (and I do mean entirely) with slices of lemon. Then she sealed it up in the foil and popped it on the grill (skin-side down) for 25 minutes. Then it was flipped over and cooked for another 5 to 10 minutes.

It was absolutely wonderful....the flavour was just salmon and lemon. Yum!

[melkor]

You could just stuff the fish with slices of lemon and fist fulls of herbs, oil the skin so it doesn't stick and toss it onto the grill. I often cook a whole salmon like that after going fishing - it's very simple and with a fish that was swimming around that morning it tastes amazing.

[Comfort Me]

We often will have whole salmon for dinner. I like to oil mine, season with salt and pepper inside and out, fill the cavity with dill, green onions, and lemon wedges. This I wrap well in several layers of cheesecloth and tie off with twine. I then rub the outside with oil again.

Cook over a hot fire on the grill for 10 minutes per inch of thickness at the thickest point, turning halfway through.

When the fish is done, remove to a tray, and slit the cheesecloth at the cavity. Peal off the cheesecloth, and miraculously, the skin peals off with it. Remove the flesh from the bones, splash with lemon and a bit of dill. Great summer fare, or, if you have a gas grill, wonderful for bringing summer into the bleak winter.

Leftovers make a lovely addition to salads or made into a mock mousse by mixing with cream cheese, capers, lemon & dill.

[robsimons]

I know its a food match from heaven, but I think lemon has to be the bain of fish.

I like mine prepared more of an asian style. I usually make a teriayki sauce without the sugar, stuff the cavity with grated ginger, chopped garlic and cracked BP (green onions work well too) then marinate, in the teriayki, the whole thing overnight. Through it on the grill when your ready. But you have to be careful because the soy sauce will burn, but when you get done you will have a nice crispy skin that you want to eat instead of pull it off.

Only thing you have to warn your guests about is not, unless they want to, eat the ginger, garlic, BP, not because it's not cooked, but more likely it not cooked completely.

[DRColby]

How big, and what kind of salmon?

One of my wife's favorites with a coho or king that is 6 or 7 pounds is to remove head and tail, split it down the backbone, leaving the fish together, and then place it skin side down on a double layer of heavy weight foil. Cover the flesh with brown sugar and sprinkle liberally with tobasco sauce. Let marinate at room temp most of the day (6 to 8 hours). Drain off liquid that's accumulated in foil and place fish - still on foil - on grill or under broiler. Again, be careful because the sugar cumuation will burn. When white fat droplets are showing on salmon it is done.

The fish frame picks up very easily after cooking and you can then cut it into pieces.

dave

[doggirl]

I love you all! Thank you SO much

[Jon Tseng]

Couple of thoughts on poaching then having cold

- Obviously lets you prepare ahead - very useful if entertaining

- 40c is the magic temp in middle for just-cooked fish (although maybe take it out a little lower as it will continue to cook as it cooks). digital thermometer very useful

- If your pot isn't big enough you can cut the salmon up and poach the bits - cut it with a zig zag so the piece fit together after like a jigsaw - you can cover the gaps with a thin layer of homemade mayo or sauce vert (basically mayo with herbs zapped in it) and then cucumber scales. the mayo also covers up any dryness if you overdo it ;-)

cheerio

J

Edited January 30, 2004 by Jon Tseng (log)