Salmon Montreal

prep time:: 10 min
total time:: 45 min

Serves 4-5

Sounds exotic but it’s actually quite simple and delicious. Montreal steak seasoning is a blend of dill weed, coriander, garlic, paprika, pepper and salt. It makes for a great seasoning not just for steaks but on salmon too. Montreal Steak Seasoning is made by McCormick and can be found in the grocery store. If you can’t find it you can try to make your own.

ingredients

Montreal steak seasoning:

2 t garlic powder - not garlic salt
1 T coarsely ground coriander seeds
2 T coarse (kosher or sea) salt
1 T dill weed
1 T paprika
1 T crushed red pepper flakes (or cayenne pepper)
1 T freshly ground (coarse) black pepper

Salmon:

3 T olive oil
3 T Montreal steak seasoning
1 t Mrs. Wrights Liquid Smoke (use only if oven baking)
1 lemon sliced thin
1 salmon filet

directions

1
Make a foil boat to hold salmon filet; sides should be about 1/2" high all around. Place salmon filet in foil boat and rub salmon filet generously with olive oil. If you’re planning on baking the salmon in the oven, rub the liquid smoke seasoning in to the salmon. If grilling, you can omit the liquid smoke. Sprinkle Montreal steak seasoning on top of filet. The more seasoning you add the more spicier it will be since Montreal steak seasoning has a lot of black pepper in it. Then arrange thin lemon slices on top of salmon filet. Let fish stand for about 30 minutes.
2
Prepare grill by getting it hot. There should be no flames, just coals. Now’s the time to add some wood alder chips soaked in water for an hour to your grill. This will get it nice and smoky with a sweet alder smoke.
3
Carefully place the salmon filet boat on to the grill. Close the grill and try to lower the temperature by closing most of the vents. Grill salmon about 10-12 minutes and remove from grill. Let salmon stand away from heat for about 5 minutes more to finish cooking. DO NOT overcook. Salmon should flake and meat should just be opaque. If you start to see, what looks like “white drops of milk” forming on top of your salmon it is OVERCOOKED. These “drops of milk” are the proteins cooking out of your salmon.
4
If you’re baking this in the oven, get the oven temperature to be about 300° F. And bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let salmon stand for about 5 minutes before serving, this will finish cooking the fish.

notes

Serve with either rice pilaf, or steamed baby red potatoes with plenty of butter, parsley and a little salt. Photo note: Nice King salmon caught off of Shoal Bay, in Cordero Channel, BC.

Source: Don Chase