The great thing about salmon is that it represents summer. Cooking and eating salmon is about as good as it gets during the warmest months of the year. The aroma of salmon caramelizing over a barbecue is glorious. Serve the fish with blueberry salsa, and you have pure bliss.
This recipe for grilled salmon celebrates all the sensual flavors and freshness of summer. Salmon is perhaps the most visually striking of the world’s fish: sleek and silvery, with a buttery and succulent flesh. The blueberry salsa adds sweet and sour tones, and is a great way to enjoy healthy fruits and vegetables.
Blueberry salsa is packed with vitamins and nutrients. My version is an absolute summertime staple, and my husband could eat it with tortilla chips three times a day. It’s pretty, slightly sweet and delicious if you use fresh blueberries for the best flavor and texture.
And, the salsa can be made ahead of time. It will keep in the fridge for as long as the eaters in your galley allow it to last (which is never very long, in my experience). It is absolutely worth doubling the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
4 (6-ounce) wild salmon fillets, skin and pin bones removed olive oil for grilling salt and freshly ground black pepper
Blueberry Salsa
1 cup fresh, wild blueberries
½ cup crushed canned pineapple, drained
½ cup red bell pepper, minced
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ red onion, minced
¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
¼ cup white raisins
1 tablespoon lime juice
¼ teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon jalapeños, minced salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Serves 4
For the salsa
Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. Salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate for one hour.
For the salmon
Preheat a grill or stove-top grill pan to medium-high heat and lightly oil the grates.
Season the fillets with salt and pepper.
Grill the fillets skinned-side up for three to five minutes. Turn fillets over and grill until fish is just cooked through, about three or four minutes more.
To serve, place blueberry salsa on a warmed plate and place the salmon on top.
For five months a year, LaDonna Gundersen lives aboard a 32-foot fishing boat in Southeast Alaska with her husband Ole, a commercial fisherman, and their boat cat Keta. An accomplished fisherwoman herself, LaDonna has authored six Alaskan-themed cookbooks, having had plenty of experience preparing meals in the boat’s 4-by-5-foot galley. Visit her website, ladonnarose.com, for recipes inspired by life at sea.
