Skill of the Grill Winning Recipe
Maple Soy Salmon with Wasabi Avocado Cream and Salmon Bacon
Bristol Bay fisherman, Chris Wang, is an accomplished chef and runs his own direct-marketing wild salmon business. He’s also the co-champion of Bellingham SeaFeast’s 2019 Skill of the Grill brought to you by Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. Learn more about his work (and order some fish!) at Gypsy Fish Company here.
Chris joined us for the fourth annual Bellingham SeaFeast and the return of Skill of the Grill on September 22, 2019.
Four celebrated chefs and wild sockeye salmon experts grilled beautiful fillets in front of a hungry audience. Three notable judges, Bellingham Mayor Kelli Linville, Miss Washington USA and Bristol Bay fisherman Evelyn Clark, and local fisherman and 2019 Soul of Bellingham Bay Award winner Phil Erickson, crowned Chis and Eric Stover from Tom Douglas Restaurants in Seattle the co-champions of this year’s contest.
Looking for a new holiday dish? Try Chris’s winning recipe at home this winter! Looking for the place to get Bristol Bay sockeye near you? Check out the list of suppliers from Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association.
Maple Soy Salmon with Wasabi Avocado Cream and Salmon Bacon
The winning dish at SeaFeast’s Skill of the Grill.
Ingredients
1/2c High Quality Soy Sauce
1/2c Real Maple Syrup
2 Bristol Bay Sockeye Salmon filets
5 Lemons
5 Avocados
1 tube of prepared Wasabi
Tom Douglas’ Salmon Rub with Love*
Salt and Pepper to taste
* a required ingredient at the contest! Find yours here.
Directions
Combine the maple syrup and soy. Skin the salmon filets and add the flesh to the marinade and allow to marinate for at least one hour and up to overnight.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Lay the skins on a sheet tray covered with a sheet of parchment paper and salt generously and sprinkle with the Rub with Love. Now flip the skins over and repeat.
Lay another sheet of parchment paper on top of the salmon skins and a sheet tray on top of that so that the skins are sandwiched. Place in the oven and bake for 30 – 40 minutes.
When finished let cool on a cooling rack until you are ready to use it. They will be fragile at this point!
To prepare the avocado wasabi cream, your avocados will need to be ripe! Half the avocados and scoop the flesh out into the food processor. Juice the lemons and do the same. Now turn on the food processor and puree until smooth. Add salt and some wasabi and whir it around a little bit more. You’ll want to figure out your amounts by tasting and re-tasting as wasabi varies quite a bit in the amount of heat. Get it to where you are satisfied and then set the avocado cream aside in the fridge.
Set some of the soy and maple marinade you prepared for the skin in a small saucepan and reduce until it thickens to the consistency of a glaze.
You’re ready for the grill!
Heat the grill and oil it generously to season it. When it is hot you can add the filets. Cook until you can see the color change about halfway up the filet and then flip gently. This may take between 2 – 4 minutes. After flipping, you’ll want to be careful not to overcook the salmon. Pull before you think it’s done all the way through as it will continue to cook even after removed directly from the heat.
Chris plated these beautifully for the judges and for the audience samples. You can place the salmon down and surround it with a drizzle of glaze. Add a dollop of the wasabi avocado cream and break off a chip of salmon bacon to add to the top of the cream.
