Grilled Parmesan Salmon

Salmon. The word conjures images of schools are migrating fish, struggling upstream to spawn. Spawn until you die. It also brings to mind delicious tasty plates of steamy goodness.

I like to experiment with food. Sometimes, on gloriously rare occasions, I come up with something good. I like this one, and thought I’d share.

Now, usually, I have a freezer full of tasty fish. Living in Alaska has many bonuses. This is a picture of my dad and I from back in ’78. The dinky fish is most decidedly not a salmon.

This is me catching fish on Monday for this tasty dish. I am such a rugged Alaska man, a sourdough to the max.

Ingredients

What does one need for parmesan salmon? Well, obviously, parmesan cheese and salmon. That’s not all, but if you listed them all in the name of the dish, people would lose interest awfully fast. Most of this stuff is to taste.

• Salmon (I prefer salmon steaks, but they only had fillets)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/3 of a lemons worth of juice
• 1/3 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 onion, cut into rings
• salt and pepper to taste
• as much parmesan cheese as you can possibly stand.

Method

Mix the olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Run the garlic through a press and add that to the bowl as well. Add the salt and pepper. Mix all this together well. I should look something like this:

Slather that stuff all over the salmon. You may want to do this on a paper towel. You don’t want so much that it’s drippy. However, during the next step, some of that liquid will soak into the salmon.

Now, you wanna start the coal. This is best grilled. Real men use charcoal, not that wimpy propane. Realer men would dig an open pit, fell a few trees, and grunt while dancing about the flames. I’ll stick to the charcoal grill.

I like to move all the coals to one side. This allows me to have better control over the temperature the salmon is cooked at. If it seems to be going to slow, just move the fish closer to the coals.

When all is ready, I throw the salmon on the grill, skin side down. I add the onions and parmesan now. You, of course, are not obligated to make smiley faces.

Depending on the thickness of your salmon and the temperature of your grill, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes to cook. So, you’ll want something to do to pass the time. I suggest preparing some veggies. I simply steamed some yellow squash.

Now would be a good time to select your drink. I suggest getting out and finding a local brew. Get something else you know you like, in case the local breweries happen to suck.

You can tell your salmon is done when it is opaque and the flesh is flakey. Time to eat!

Conclusion? Salmon yummy, local brewery crappy.