Fire Roasted Whole Wild Sockeye Salmon and Peach Salsa
You are not going to want to eat salmon any other way this summer! Using local peaches and some classic smokiness from the fire, you will need a plaid shirt and an ax to serve it. Look the part, as people will write songs about you in lore.
Ingredients
1 Whole Wild BC Salmon – Cleaned
1 BC Peach – Sliced
1 Lemon – Sliced
1 Good Pinch Vancouver Island Salt Company Flake Salt
Salsa
3 BC Peaches – Diced
½ Red Onion – Diced
½ Cucumber – Seeded and Diced
10 Cherry Tomatoes – Diced
2 large handfuls Fresh Mint – Rough Chopped
Salt and Pepper to Taste
¼ cup - White Wine
1 tsp - Chinese 5 Spice
½ tsp - Chipotle Pepper
1 tsp - Soy Sauce
A SPLASH of Fish Sauce
Directions
1. Preheat the campfire for cooking. Here are a few tips on how to build a cooking fire
2. Season the wild BC salmon inside the cavity with salt and stuff with the peaches and lemons.
3. Place the salmon on a large foil baking pan or it can go directly on a grate. If using a pan, place the pan on a grate over the cooking fire. Let it sit for a bit.
4. While you are letting nature do its thing with the salmon and fire, get the salsa ready. Chop up the ingredients, mix in a bowl. Season to taste. Set aside. Easy!
5. Now, back to the salmon. Remember, live fire isn’t an oven. It's not going to cook evenly. You will have to fiddle and move your salmon to get to the hot spots to help cook the fish. You can even use aluminum foil to tent the fish to help speed up the cooking.
6. Time for a salmon flip. Using whatever tools you need ( I used a set of long-handled tongs and a metal spatula) flip the salmon onto its other side. The skin might look scorched. Honestly, it's ok! You want to see that. You know it got some heat. You are looking for flesh that easily flakes away. But remember, this is only one side. You need to repeat it for the other side. Again, you can tent with foil if you wish to speed it up.
7. I wish I could give you a time for this, but its not a science, maybe 20 minutes, but it depends on the heat of your fire. You could use a thermometer, but who brings one camping? Like I said earlier, when the flesh flakes, you should be golden. Pull from the fire, and serve with the salsa. You are going to look like a Rockstar… or a mountain man.
ENJOY!
Recipe and photo by Cory Walby, www.saturdaynighttestkitchen.com