Recipes / Fish
Braaied salmon with lemon and herb butter
Skin-on salmon or salmon trout fillets cooked over medium coals and topped with a cold lemon, dill and chive butter that melts over the hot fish.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 10 min
- Plan ahead
- 30 minutes chilling the butter
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Lemon and herb butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Mash the butter with the lemon zest, lemon juice, herbs, garlic and salt until evenly green.
- Spoon the butter onto a piece of baking paper, roll it into a log and twist the ends. Chill for at least 30 minutes until firm.
- Take the salmon out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking. Pat it dry with paper towel.
- Mix the salt, pepper and garlic powder. Rub the flesh side of each fillet with olive oil and sprinkle the seasoning over it.
- Let the coals burn down to medium, where you can hold your hand above the grid for 5 to 6 seconds. Scrub the grid clean and oil it well.
- Lay the fillets flesh side down on the grid and leave them alone for 3 to 4 minutes, until they lift off without sticking.
- Turn them skin side down with two wide spatulas. Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, moving them to a cooler part of the grid if the skin flares up.
- Lift the fillets onto a warm plate. Put a thick slice of the herb butter on each one and serve with the lemon wedges.
Done when: the flesh has turned opaque and flakes when you press it with a fork, and a thermometer in the thickest part reads 63°C (145°F).
Tips
- Salmon sticks to a dirty or dry grid. A hinged fish grid makes turning far easier, especially with thinner salmon trout fillets.
- Salmon trout from South African farms is a good local stand-in for Norwegian salmon, and so are rainbow trout or yellowtail fillets. Thinner fillets need only 2 to 3 minutes a side.
- The butter keeps for 5 days in the fridge or a month in the freezer. Slice it straight from frozen onto steak, mielies or baked potatoes.
Salmon is not a local fish, but imported Norwegian salmon and farmed salmon trout from the Western Cape have become regulars at South African fish braais. The oily flesh suits the coals better than most white fish, as it stays moist and is less likely to fall apart. A slice of cold herb butter on top does the work of a sauce. For more on fire heat and fish, read braaiing fish.
Source
Adapted from Peppered Salmon on the Braai at Ina Paarman's Kitchen and Grilled Salmon Fillets with Herb Butter at Williams Sonoma.