Just Call Me Iron Chef

In January I was watching “Iron Chef” with my mom and they prepared a fish in a very unique way and ever since then I’ve been wanting to try it.  I did some research and discovered this method was not hard, but you needed a fresh trout or salmon to ensure the best results, so I’ve been waiting for months.

This week, my sister’s family was here and on Friday, Jim Rodman took Nathan, my brother-in-law, Jon, and my nephew, Ty, out fishing on Lake Superior. And Ty was kind enough to supply me with a fresh, 27 1/2 inch King Salmon.

Nice fish, huh?

I decided to give it a whirl. The method is to encrust the fish in kosher salt. The salt then forms a crust that is basically like a steam oven that perfectly steams the fish inside.  It’s supposed to be the most moist, succulent fish you’ve ever tasted. At least that’s what Iron Chef said. So, I wanted to try it.

The first step is to prepare your base layer.  You put down a pretty thick layer of kosher salt on the pan, in my case a jelly roll pan, cuz my fish was BIG.

Then the fish is laid atop this bed of salt.  You only gut the fish, leaving skin, head and tail on the fish.  My one problem was that my fish was a little large, so I laid him diagonally on my pan. He still barely fit on the pan and in the oven. In the end I think a slightly smaller fish would have been better.

You then layer salt over the entire fish’s body leaving only the head and tail exposed. I wasn’t sure how much salt to put on, so I put on a lot. Afterwards, I realized I could have used less, although it still worked beautifully.

Then the fish goes into a 400 degree oven. The concept behind this is that the salt soaks up the moisture of the skin and becomes a hard crust over the fish, thereby, sealing in the juices of the flesh and steaming it to perfection.  My recipe said 20 minutes for a 2 lb. fish. I had about a 5 pound fish, so I ended up having to cook it for an hour.

I took it out of the oven and then cracked the crust off of the fish. This is the entertaining and impressive part.

The skin peels away perfectly leaving yummy salmon that just falls off the bone in big chunks.

Voila, perfectly prepared fish, and as you can see in this next picture, I was able to lift out the whole backbone and all the ribs. So, not only was this the best salmon we EVER ate, it was also virtually boneless.

Thanks Iron Chef! We’ll definitely be trying this one again! And thanks Jim for taking the boys out to catch this delicious supper for our family!