The King of Fish

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

When a man is courting a girl, some bring gifts of flowers, others bring jewelry, and still others sweep them away on romantic vacations. If you were my boyfriend in our early dating days, then you knew there was no better way to win me over than with a gift of a 3 lb. piece of wild king salmon. I wouldn’t say that salmon is the sole reason we have made it as long as we have, but as a gift early in our relationship, he couldn’t have done much better.

Every year around this time my boyfriend’s best friend goes on a fishing expedition to Alaska and usually comes back with more salmon that the two of them could ever eat in a year. As he gets ready to leave on this year’s trip, we have been cleaning out the freezer full of salmon fillets once more to prepare for the new catch. Even after nearly a year in the freezer, wild king Alaskan salmon still has a taste far superior than most any other variety of salmon we get during the year. And no matter how many fillets we have to go through, whether working our way through the old catch or sampling from the new one, I never get bored of finding new and exciting ways to prepare this king of fish.

Alaska is home to five different species of wild salmon: coho or silver, keta or chum, pink or humpy, sockeye or red, Chinook or King. Of the five species, Chinook or King salmon, whose fishing season begins about now in mid-May and lasts until mid-July, is arguably the most highly prized. The Chinook species is highly-sought in part because of its rarity; the Chinook salmon inhabits only Pacific waters stretching from the San Francisco Bay up to Alaska, through the Bering Straight into the coastal waters of Russia and even as far South as Japan. What makes salmon, including the Chinook or King, special among fish is that it is anadromous. This means that they spend most of their lives in the ocean, then swim up fresh water rivers to spawn.

More important than its unique habits and scarcity, the King salmon is valued because of its velvety, rich taste, high omega-3 content, and firm flesh. Year-round farm-raised salmon pales in comparison. It is this rich flesh, high in heart healthy fat that makes salmon both versatile and forgiving in the kitchen. Salmon takes well to virtually any cooking technique, from slow roasting in the oven at a low temperature to barbecuing on cedar planks, to poaching in white wine, to simply sauteing in oil to get a nice, crispy skin.

Throughout our experiments in cooking King salmon, my boyfriend and I have come up with some favorites. He prefers a teriyaki style marinade made with soy, garlic, mirin, white wine vinegar and a bit of sugar. This needs about 15 minutes soaking at more temperature and then about 12 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees F, basting with the marinade half way through. We’ll serve that version with garlic mashed potatoes.

I like making a paste of brown sugar and spicy brown mustard. I’ll oil a baking sheet and place the fillet skin side down, seasoning the flesh side with salt, pepper, and a seafood seasoning. After about 6 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees F (this also lends itself well to using cedar planks on the barbecue), I’ll spread a bit of the paste on each fillet and return it to the oven to cook through. This recipe pairs well with a couscous pilaf studded with almond slivers and golden raisins.

A recipe recently shared with me by a friend named Brian Snow is yet another example of the ease of working with salmon in the kitchen. Brian told me one of his favorite entertaining recipes involves searing salmon fillets flesh side down in a large pot with a lid. After flipping them to the other side he adds canned lentils and a couple of bags of spinach. He sticks the lid on and lets the salmon finish cooking through. Minutes later he has a one pot meal that is consistently a crowd pleaser. Skeptical about a dish that could really be that simple, I tried Brian’s recipe for myself, seasoning the fish first with a little Peri-Peri (a chili and citrus Mozambique spice) and adding some white wine in with the lentils and spinach. The result was just as delicious as he claimed, a recipe I am sure to repeat.

Even if salmon isn’t quite the token of love for you that it was for me, that doesn’t mean you still can’t love the salmon. If you are a lover of salmon, now is the time to express your feelings because no variety can really compare to the king of all salmon, the Alaskan Chinook. If you don’t have a freezer full of King salmon already at hand, head to your market and pick some up. Take the time and play around with this special fish and you just might come to understand why they call it King.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 salmon fillets (4 ounce size)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Peri-Peri spice (or make your own using chili flakes, dried orange peel, garlic powder, and paprika)
• salt and pepper
• 2 cans lentils, drained
• 1 pound baby spinach leaves
• 3/4 cup white wine