I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’d never cooked a large fillet of fish on the barbecue. Never once have I done the traditional cedar plank salmon or even a large fillet en papillote (in parchment paper). But then I realized all I needed to do was put a big slab of sustainable BC wild salmon on a piece of foil skin-side-down, seasoned on both sides with whatever blend of ground spices I wanted (the only requirement being enough salt). The skin would get crispy underneath from all the heat and the top would be tender and juicy.
My spice blend ended up being:
Cinnamon, cloves, star anise, vanilla bean, lemon peel, black pepper, cayenne, sumac and lemon pepper, plus kosher salt. I spread it generously all over the fish and then used the same rub for some sliced zucchini (plus oil for the zucchini; the salmon has enough of its own oil to cook evenly).
Other spice rub recommendations are paprika + cumin + coriander or cardamom + any hot pepper + black pepper + salt
Or just garam masala, ras al hanout, panch phoron or curry powder, which are already spice blends. Or buy a blend of “fish rub” from a quality spice marke like Épices de Cru or Les Soeurs en Vrac. The fresher, the better.
The spices don’t need to marinate the salmon for long. Just put them on and then barbecue the fish right away. If you leave it for more than, say, 30 minutes, the salt will start to cure the fish and you’ll end up with a funny texture and potentially overcooked fish.
How to barbecue salmon
Preheat your barbecue and clean the grills like normal. Put the fish on aluminium foil, shiny side facing the fish. I roll up the sides a little to create a lip so the fish juices don’t escape, but I don’t cover the fish entirely or it’ll steam ad it won’t get any of that smoky flavour I want.
You can double layer the fish if your foil is thin. And you can add some tender or medium-tender greens underneath the fish that will wilt with the cooking and absorb the salt and spice and juice that runs out of the fish (e.g. spinach, baby kale, sorrel, swiss chard)
Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the fish on top of the grills with the top closed for 10 minutes. Check it and adjust the heat if necessary. It’ll need up to 20 minutes depending on the heat and thickness of the fillet.
While the fish is on the BBQ, I spread the slices of zucchini over the rest of the grill and then flip them at the 10 minute mark. I try not to lift the lid too often to check them because I don’t want the heat to escape and mess up the cooking time of the fish.
The fish is done when you can barely flake it, or even just before that, since by the time you take it to the table and get the zucchini off the grill, it’ll have cooked that tiny bit extra that’ll make it perfectly tender. Then just use oven mitts to lift the foil off the barbecue onto a baking sheet, add the zucchini and bring everything to the table. The best part is the crispy skin on the bottom of the fish, which caramelizes in its own juices and the spices. It’s heavenly. So you can either flip the salmon skin-side-up or just scrape those deliciously crunchy bits from the bottom onto your plate as desired.
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