Maple Juniper Smoked Salmon
Fish cookery and smoked foods don't have to be labor intensive and intimidating. Our recipe for Maple Juniper Smoked Salmon uses a simple Native American technique to easily bring lightly smoked, delicately cooked, flavorful salmon to your table (and impress your wife with your pioneering skills)! For those of you with maples growing in your backyards, its time to break out the clippers! The fish is grilled on a bed of freshly cut maple twigs and leaves, which allows the fish to gently cook while wrapping it in aromatic smoke. The glaze uses juniper and maple syrup to produce a subtle sweet and piney flavor. When buying fish, we try to make sure it is sustainably harvested (or farmed). Ask at your local seafood store, they are usually very knowledgeable. This recipe is based on one of my favorite cookbooks: Food of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions by Fernando and Marlene Divina. If you are interested, check out some of our other seafood recipes.
Yield: Serves 2 as a main
Ingredients:
- 1 pound salmon fillet (boned, skin left on)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 juniper berries, crushed
- 1 pinch (1/16 teaspoon) black pepper
- Handful maple leaves and twigs (enough to cover your grill grate), rinsed
Steps:
- Preheat your grill to medium high.
- In a food processor or blender, briefly combine (about 15 seconds) the maple syrup, vinegar, oil, salt, juniper berries, and black pepper. Transfer the glaze to a small bowl.
- Make a bed of maple twigs and leaves on the grill, with the leaves forming a solid layer over the twigs for the fish to lay on.
- Brush the skin-side of the fish with glaze and lay (skin-side-down) on the bed of leaves. Generously brush the top side of the fish with glaze.
- Close the grill lid and cook on medium heat for a total of 12-16 minutes. Every two minutes, open the grill lid and brush the top of the fish with a generous coating of glaze. The fish will be done when the center of the fish has lost its translucency and begins to easily flake apart.
- Remove the fish from the grill, sprinkle with salt and serve immediately. Note that the skin will be soft, not crispy (having been steamed between the fish and leaves).
Note: If you don't have access to maple twigs/leaves, or want an alternative, this recipe can be used with a cedar plank. However, cooking times will vary.
Simple Lemon Butter Salmon
We've tried to expose Madeline to a wide taste palette, including some foods that kids find tough to love, like fish. In Haiti, her favorite fish dish is pan fried local Woz fish with a key lime butter sauce. While back in North America, we have adapted Madeline's favorite fish recipe, and make this Simple Lemon Butter Salmon. Madeline likes this Lemon Butter Salmon so much her hands shake with enthusiasm in between bites, and quite frankly, we adults aren't too far behind her!
Homemade Sauerkraut with Juniper and Caraway
There is something magic about fermentation. Take two humble ingredients (cabbage and salt in this case), combine in just the right way with a hint of spice, shepard the development of specific microorganisims, and a week later you end up with a completely transformed product. The cabbage has softened in texture and flavor, the harsh sulfur notes in fresh cabbage have been rounded out and enlivened with a bright crisp sourness, with hints of earthy, piney spice. Sauerkraut is a traditional comfort food for many people and a health food for others. It is rich in vitamins and minerals, and (if unpasteurized) loaded with health-giving micro-fauna. It is equally at home slow cooked with pork or piled on a hot dog, added to tacos or eaten straight out of the jar.
Marinated Feta with Rosemary & Juniper
This past weekend we had our first outdoor dinner party of the season and I had an edible centerpiece in mind while concocting this marinated feta with rosemary and juniper. This dish captures the soft light and open skies of an evening in early spring. Marinated feta is a fresh take on a cheese course that delivers a surprising burst of lemon and woodsy flavor to salty cubes of feta. We served marinated feta as an accompaniment to Paul's grilled Greek chicken and vegetables. The leftover feta, which grows more flavorful as it sits, can be added to grain dishes, mixed into omelets, pureed into dips or stuffed into veggies. The olive oil and herb mixture made a tasty addition to a salad vinaigrette, and would be delicious on pasta or used to sop up with crusty bread.
Salted Maple Buttercream
In the countdown before our departure, we have been cooking and eating our favorite things... with maple syrup topping the list! We are both mad for maple; we like it in baklava, with smoked salmon, in granola, mixed into french toast, even baby back ribs, and we stockpile it compulsively. Last month we set out to make a fall/winter dessert that would showcase this extraordinary elixir at it's finest, and a dark almost bittersweet Blackstrap Molasses and Fresh Ginger Cake with Salted Maple Buttercream was the delicious result. This dessert was a team effort, while I whipped up a spicy molasses cake, Paul boiled down dark amber maple syrup, whipped eggs yolks and butter to a creamy consistency for a transcendent, incredible salted maple buttercream. Paul made Salted Maple Buttercream no less than 4 times in the past month, and while we try to avoid superlatives, I'm pretty sure this is the best flavor of buttercream I have ever tasted. Paul's comment, as he made batch after batch; "remember this one, I want a big bowl of salted maple buttercream for my last meal."
Spicy Maple Hazelnut Brittle
Paul and I approach desserts very differently. Paul is the give-me-a-challenge-dessert-maker. His enjoyment of the dessert making process appears to be directly correlated with the hours of prep and level of complication. Full disclosure, this is a great food type to be married to, all I have to do is casually mention a complicated dessert, note that it sounds amazing and nonchalantly question both Paul's ability and willingness to reproduce it. Then I settle in for a long wait, a complicated confectionery process (often involving candy thermometers and scales), and a stunning end result.
Spicy Maple Hazelnut Brittle was inspired by the a jar of maple syrup and bag of hazelnuts I found during our house packing and was loath to discard. While the recipe involves some tricky chemistry and the use of a candy thermometer, the result is spectacular: a crunchy sweet and spicy maple brittle loaded with tons of perfectly toasted (almost smokey) hazelnuts. A perfect winter treat!
