BBQ Salmon
Seafood on the BBQ doesn't need to be problematic.Grilling fish over smouldering charcoal is easy, if you follow the foolproof steps found in this recipe.
Equipment
- Charcoal BBQ (alternatively use a gas BBQ or under a hot grill)
Ingredients
- 5 salmon fillets
- table salt, as required
- granulated sugar, as required
Instructions
Dry brining stage
- Make up a dry brine of salt and sugar. You want to use a 4:1 salt to sugar ratio.
- Dry brine the salmon fillets by sprinkling the dry brine liberally on all sides of the fish.
- Wait for 20 minutes, this stage firms up the fish making it easy to move on the grill. Whilst you are waiting for the dry brining to take effect you can start lighting your BBQ.
Grilling stage
- The three steps to grilling fish:Clean your grill grates.
- Oil the grill grates.
- Preheat the grill grates, ensuring they are super-hot before you place the fish on the grill.
The effects of dry brining
- Dry brining firms up the fish, making it easy to move on the grill.
- The salt penetrates deep into the muscle fibres which concentrate the flavours.Make sure you wash off the excess salt.
Grilling the fish
- Pat the fish dry using tissues and place skin down onto the hot grates.Note: I tried both flesh side down and skin side down. I felt skin side down allowed the fish skin to crisp up better than flesh side down.
- Leave a gap in-between the fish fillets to ensure they flip over easily.
- Place the fish on the super-hot grill grates resisting the temptation of flipping too early.
- The fish will release from the grate when it's ready to flip. Use a fork to get in-between the grill grate to aid the flipping. If the fish is stuck to the grate, wait for a minute and try again.
- Flip and cook the other side. You may want to use a spatula to aid you. The fish should take less time on the second side.
- I tried skin side down and we felt it gave a better final product.
- Cook until crisp on both sides. The internal temperature should read around 58°C.
- Serve with pea shoot salad and topped with freshly made chimichurri.
- Chalo kawa!