I have had the idea for this recipe on the brain ever since I posted my recipe for a Northwestern inspired salad a couple of weeks ago which contains a few similar ingredients. I finally made it last night and couldn’t wait a week to share it with you and so my original post will just have to wait. It all started when I was thinking about local ingredients and how in the Northwest we tend to stuff our salmons full of lemons and began to wonder if there was a local alternative. As it turns out there is a fabulous alternative in the form of the tart and flavorful raspberry.
For the salmon, I wanted to enhance the its naturally sweet qualities and so used a combination of soy sauce and brown sugar and an indirect grilling method. The result is a slightly lacquered piece of fish somewhat reminiscent of smoked salmon that still retains the tender sweetness of the fresh salmon. The interplay of the raspberry and grilled salmon is astonishing. The raspberry not only gives it a bit of acidity, but lends it a complexity beyond that of a lemon.
I chose sorrel for the salad for its green yet citrusy flavor. I wanted to add a bit of flavor and interest instead of simply plopping on a bunch of micro greens and calling it good.
Creating this recipe was a lot of fun. It is sort of funny how when you impose limitations such as diet and locality how it forces you to be creative in ways you hadn’t thought of before. I hope you enjoy this one, I certainly did. In fact I’m making it again tonight!
The Salmon
4 servings Good Quality Salmon (about 1 lb) skin on, pin bones out
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
Stir the soy sauce and brown sugar together dissolving as much of it as possible. Marinate the salmon in it for 30-60 minutes.
Heat your grill over low heat and add the salmon skin side down, positioning it away from the direct heat source. Grill slowly for 30-35 minutes or until flaking. Use a little extra brown sugar and soy sauce for basting .
The Raspberry Sauce
2 cups Raspberries
2 TBS Honey
Pinch Sea Salt
Combine the ingredients in a small sauce pan and cook down to release the juices, stirring often. When the raspberries have broken down, transfer them to a blender and puree, all the while being very careful to avoid burning yourself of course. Run the sauce through a sieve to using a rubber spatula to eliminate the seeds and get all of the thick yummy juice. Keep warm over low heat until serving time and give it a stir to ensure cohesion between all of the juice and berry matter.
Note: The addition of freshly cracked pepper or a bit of thyme would be lovely additions, but not necessary.
The Salad
A large handful of Sorrel, well cleaned, dried and sliced
Another large handful Microgreens, well cleaned and dried
Yet another handful, but this time raspberries, rinsed and carefully pat dry
3 tsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Rice Vinegar
1/2 tsp Dijon
Sea Salt, to taste
Freshly Cracked Pepper, to taste
Whisk your ingredients together to form an emulsion in a small to medium sized bowl. Add in the greens and raspberries then toss. Serve with the salmon and raspberry sauce
Yum!
I think we must share the same tastebuds…lol
We quite often do the salmon like this with a sweetened soy glaze, but I just cheat and buy sweet soy sauce and brush it over the salmon instead of mixing sugar and regular soy.
Glad you are showing off sorrel. I think it is such an underrated vegetable (or is it herb?) and would quite happily eat it rather than silverbeet.
This is what I want always!
When will you have me for dinner finally!
Rob
Debbie, I’ve found myself thinking the same thing before!
The use of soy sauce for salting purposes is pretty common in Northwest cookery and when I started smoking salmon I subbed it for the salt in the cure. I think it lends a different kind of depth to it that I really prefer.
I think it is one of those greens that can work as both.
Rob, I’m surprised you haven’t turned into one by now! I was planning something very similar for dinner when you guys finally come up. I was hoping that will be this weekend or next.
Whoa! Thanks to Costco in my current city I can now get raspberries and all other kinds of berries flown straight from the land of plenty. I do feel guilty about the carbon footprint, but I do feel I deserve a treat every now and then. I always wonder though, why do we run sauces through sieves to get rid of the tiny seeds? Am I the only weirdo that LOVES tiny berry seeds? This recipe sounds awesome and I want it now…
Bordeaux, Thanks weirdo!
I don’t mind the seeds in jam or something, but in this type of dish I find it disruptive to the overall texture.
I hope life in Taipei is wonderful.
Aha! Now I understand
I love peach Melba but I can’t understand why chefs use such fussy raspberry sauce recipes. I like the raspberries pureed. I then taste the puree to see if it needs sugar. It often doesn’t. Peach Melba contains ice cream, and that usually has enough sugar in it. And the last thing I want is no seeds. It spoils the texture.