I am back again. So sorry it has been so long again. Life is busy. I have been running and have done two races so I have not had time to cook. I did this a couple of weeks ago and are finally posting it. Still working on grilling, todays specimen.... Salmon. Now I love salmon. I grew up eating a lot of fish and have always made it but never in this size. My family does not have the same love of fish that I do. Symon states it just can't smell like fish, whatever that means. My kids might eat it if they didn't know if was fish. :)
First things first, I had to find a whole salmon with the head on.... in Arizona. Of course I went to Costco and was in luck. They did have a large side of salmon but not with the head on which was ok by me. :)
We started by making a rub/crust that was made out of salt and sugar. It was placed on plastic wrap and then wrapped around both sides of the fish. The fish is supposed to have skin on one side but this one did not. Again, I have decided to just go with it and try to figure it out. Here is my salt/sugar mix ready for the fish to go on.
Before putting the fish onto the cure, it is brushed with honey. Yummy!!!!!
At this point you place a weight on one side of the fish and refrigerate for 1 hour and then flip and do again. The point of this process is to cure the fish. You ask what cure means. When you cure a fish or meat, you draw out the excess moisture out of the protein and intensify the natural flavor of the product. After the curing is complete we removed the fish and washed/dried it well. Now we are ready for the grill.
Of course because this cooking technique was developed by Alton Brown, he states that a main problem of cooking fish on the grill is stickage. :) To prevent that, he suggests using chicken wire. He suggests using the chicken wire as a sling and oil it up with olive oil. Then place the fish on the chicken wire and then place the chicken wire on the grill. Now since I was not going to buy chicken wire, I don't own chickens and am trying to use what I already had I opted to spray the grill with grilling pam and go for it. Now remember, my fish does not have skin on it as suggested. When I put it on the grill, which was difficult because it was so big, I was so proud and feeling confident that it was going to work. I made sure to oil the fish and the grill well.
AB suggests having the grill temp up to 500 degrees, then place the chicken wire contraptions on and then use a thermometer and then remove when you reach 140 degrees. He does not suggest ever flipping. Because I did not have the chicken wire, skin, or a charcoal grill, I opted to flip after a couple of minutes. Now, after a couple of minutes that grill was SMOKING! Probably because it was at 500 degrees. I attempted to flip and it was stuck. Awesome!!! I let it go a little longer hoping to create a crust on that side which would allow me to remove it better. When we were searing, the key was to not move the product until the crust forms in which it will be easier to remove. The longer I left it, the more it smoked. I decided to just turn it. It was pretty burnt. Of course I was mad but Symon reassured me that we could take of the burnt parts. We then continued to cook until we reached 140 degrees.
With help from Symon we removed the whole fish and served with brown rice and peas, "green balls".
Overall, it was a success. It had a sweet flavor from the honey and definitely a BBQ flavor. I think we could have cooked it on a lower temperature for longer and maybe we would not have a had the burnt ends. Symon and I both enjoyed it. The kids didn't even try. :( Next up.... CHICKEN!!!!
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