Wild Chinook Salmon, Alder Smoke & Dundee Hills Pinot Noir
A Boy, His Big Green Eggs & Sokol Blosser Wine
Growing up on the East Coast salmon comes two ways - steaks or filets. Now, that I live in the Pacific Northwest, the Salmon Nation, I know there are many more choices than that! My local everyday supermarket will have at different times Copper River, Sockeye, Chinook, and Coho salmon depending on the time of year. You can buy the whole fish, a side, filets or steaks. In the four years that I have lived in the Pacific Northwest, I found that I love wild caught salmon from cold waters. I have also learned that I prefer to grill/smoke it as a whole piece rather than individual portions. The other thing I've learned from my time in Oregon Wine Country is that nothing goes better with salmon than Oregon Pinot Noir. Sokol Blosser’s elegant, age-worthy and food-friendly style paired particularly well with our wild salmon. Here’s how we cooked our wild, alder smoked Chinook salmon last night.
Preparation:
We bought a nice piece of wild caught Chinook (King) salmon. We removed the pin bones and lightly seasoned it with herbes d’ Provence, olive oil and Evolution Spice. Make sure you lightly season the fish; this will let the wonderful flavors of the salmon show through.
Grilling:
Our Big Green Egg, Mac, got the call to grill/smoke this wonderful piece of salmon.
• Set up the grill for direct cooking and heat it up to 300˚F.
• Remove and oil the grill grates.
• Add alder chips to the glowing coals in the grill. Alder wood was what the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest chose cook their salmon. Alder wood adds a nice light smoke flavor to the fish.
• Put the oiled grill grate back on the grill.
• Place the salmon on the grill with the skin side up. Grill/smoke the fresh side of the fish for about 10 to 12 minutes.
• Carefully turn the fish over to the skin side and place on the grill on the edge of the fire ring. Not indirect, but not direct either. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the flesh flakes with a fork and is still moist inside. Do not overcook. At the Nagle’s this gives us a nicely cooked piece of salmon that is medium-rare.
• Just before you remove the salmon from the grill, squeeze a little lemon juice on the fish.
Wine:
Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills Pinot Noir 2005 was a terrific match for this alder smoked Chinook salmon. The wine has great mouth feel, texture and elegance. While the 2005 is drinking nicely now, I can only think of how it will develop with more time in the bottle. The question we all have to ask ourselves is how much do we buy to enjoy this summer? The second question is how much do we need to buy to enjoy over the next 5 summers? The Sokol Blosser 2005 will last more than 5 years, but not in the Nagle household. This stuff is too good!