Zazzle My Fishy Fish

April 24, 2009 1:08 PM

I've inherited some fresh cubed salmon (left by roommate who is gone for the week). I'm thinking of grilling it. But salmon is sort of boring. What sort of spice, rub, marinade or other goodness can I use to add some zing?

It's fresh but for some reason cut into 1.5-inch cubes. I figure grilling it on skewers would work, but would like to add some extra flavor.

I'll take other ideas too. It's about... I dunno, a pound? About 20 cubes.

posted by rokusan to food & drink (17 comments total)

Garlic and honey is very nice on salmon, expecially as it carmelizes. Cubes might make it a little more problematic but it should work.
posted by elendil71 at 1:14 PM on April 24

Cumin and dill, shake it up in a big zip-lock, add some lime juice right before you're ready to cook it (otherwise the acid will cook it too much).
posted by odinsdream at 1:14 PM on April 24

Marinate in:

Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil (it's strong, but so good, so, about a teaspoon)
Hoisin
Pineapple Juice

Grill on skewers, sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:16 PM on April 24

I'm not sure what "cubed" salmon is but I made an excellent Salmon last night. I created a marinade out of 3 tablespoons of melted butter, dijon mustard, honey, garlic and lemon juice. Then I mixed panko bread crumbs with parsley and chopped pecans and topped the marinated Salmon with it. I sprayed a little olive oil spray on top to encourage the crust to get . . well, crusty. Salmon should grill or bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Mine took about 35 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven. Grilling would have worked too but it was rainy and cold here last night. I served this with a Caribbean Sweet Potato Salad (happy to share that recipe too if you're interested). Everyone love it.

Another favorite Salmon recipie of mine is to marinate with plain yogort, honey and dill. It grills up nicely, just don't paste the yogurt on too thickly.
posted by dchrssyr at 1:21 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

oh sorry, on preview, you explained the "cubed" part and I just jumped ahead to contribute my recipie. Bad dchrssyr!
posted by dchrssyr at 1:22 PM on April 24

I've posted these here before, but they're quick, delicious, and pretty easy to make. Here they are adapted for cubes:

Grilled Salmon Cubes with Balsamic Glaze

1/4 Cup good-- real!-- balsamic vinegar
1/4 Cup water
Juice of 1 lemon
4 teaspoons brown sugar
Cubed Salmon
Vegetable oil
salt & pepper

Mix together vinegar, water, lemon juice, brown sugar into a non-reactive pan. Bring to boil then lower heat until reduced by 50%.

Brush salmon cubes with vegetable oil, season with salt & pepper, then thread onto skewers

Grill salmon skewers until done, tuning once, approx 2 - 3 min per side.

Spoon glaze over salmon.


Crispy Potato-Wrapped Salmon Cubes with Mustard Sauce.

(adapted-- well, blatantly stolen, really-- from either Gourmet Magazine or possibly some Food Network show. I don't remember. Hey, maybe it was Sara Moulton's show on the food network, in which case I could have stolen it from BOTH!)

1 large russet potato
3/4 lb to 1 lb center salmon cubes
vegetable oil (canola or grapeseed or something like that. olive oil won't work for low-smoke-point-related reasons)
1 bunch of fresh spinach, stemmed (if you use baby spinach, you don't need to remove the stems...)
half a stick of butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon whole-grain mustard
Salt & Pepper

Peel potato, then use a cross-cut peeler to shave wide, paper-thin slices off the potato. I find this to be easiest if you start with the biggest potato you can find, slice off the very ends and the sides, ending up with, essentially, a rectangular peeled potato as wide as the blade on your cross-cut peeler.

Season salmon cubes with salt and pepper, then wrap each piece in potato slices, overlapping as needed.

Heat 1/4" vegetable oil in a skillet until very hot (but not smoking!)

Carefully place wrapped salmon pieces into oil, and cook about 3 minutes, until potato has turned golden and crispy. Carefully turn over and cook the other side for another 2 - 3 minutes, until done.

Place on paper towels on plate in an under-200-degree warm oven to drain.

In a large sautee pan, skillet, or whatever, sautee the spinach over medium heat in 1 Tablespoon olive oil until wilted, stirring as necessary. Should take 1 - 2 minutes. Season spinach with salt & pepper, and transfer to DIFFERENT paper towels on DIFFERENT plate in an under-200-degree warm oven to drain.

Clean out original skillet (the salmon one), and heat lemon juice, water, and mustard over low heat, stirring. Add butter, swirling, to incorporate. Don't let it get too hot, or it will separate. Remove from heat, season to taste with salt & pepper.

On two warmed plates, mound spinach in center of each, and top with salmon cubes. Drizzle sauce around the outside.
posted by dersins at 1:25 PM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Salmon candy!. It's amazing!
posted by zerokey at 1:27 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

If I have salmon on hand, I usually broil it with lemon + dill + butter OR garlic + dill + olive oil, or I pan-fry it after a quick marinade (like 5 minutes per side) in some soy sauce, mirin, and brown sugar. I've never tried grilling salmon, though, except a plain filet on a cedar plank.
posted by Meg_Murry at 1:46 PM on April 24

No love for wasabi/horseradish?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:11 PM on April 24

Caramelize it? That's what my mother does.
posted by bettafish at 2:19 PM on April 24

Fry garlic and parsley, then spinach, in lots of good olive oil. Set aside when it's not soggy any more. Cube some feta cheese. Put salt and freshly ground black pepper into spinach goo, add some lemon juice, stir. Put goo in ovenproof dish. Push salmon cubes and feta cubes into goo. Sprinkle with some extra oil. Bake in oven until done, c. 25 minutes at 400 F.
posted by Namlit at 2:48 PM on April 24

Easy and good: cover salmon with pesto and bake.
posted by lazydog at 3:57 PM on April 24

Honey-lime glaze is pretty amazing, and would be fresh and summery. The recipe I have is 1/4 c honey, juice of one lime, and 1/4 tsp each of cayenne pepper and chili powder. That makes enough for four small fillets, so you'd have to increase it to make enough to marinade all those cubes for skewers.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 4:03 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

If you can get your hands on some Stubbs BBQ sauce, it's good stuff. Pretend you're in Texas; throw it on the grill.
posted by zinfandel at 7:02 PM on April 24

Seconding pesto! Delicious on salmon, especially if you can get your hands on one of those cedar grilling planks (yeah, I didn't think they'd make a noticeable difference, but they make salmon in particular OMG delicious and smoky, even on a gas grill).
posted by halogen at 9:10 PM on April 24

I'm returning a week later to favorite the two that worked best. Thanks for help with the experiment, everyone.
posted by rokusan at 1:30 PM on May 6

(Three. Hoisin, pesto and barbeque sauce are three crazy things I never thought would work on salmon, but they were all great. I ran out of fish before I could try wasabi.)
posted by rokusan at 1:31 PM on May 6