Lemon Herb Butter Grilled Salmon

LEMON HERB BUTTER GRILLED SALMON WITH MANGO SALSA AND MINT COCONUT RICE

There are a lot of stars in this grilling show, but the real MVP is the Alaskan Sockeye salmon that we got at Heinen’s. I never realized how amazing this salmon was, until we grilled it. The rich color of the Alaskan Sockeye salmon is undeniably red and beautiful. It’s just begging for a spritz of lemon to get started!

I also add lemon to the butter with herbs for when it’s time to grill. The butter medallions get placed when the fish are almost ready to remove from the coals.

To really compliment this unique Sockeye salmon, I wanted to do something summery and light. I love a mango salsa for a lot recipes, but this just felt so right.

I also love to cook rice in a rice cooker (saves you time and cleaning) with coconut cream. It makes the rice slightly sweet and a little fluffier. This time around mint can go in there too, and it just adds to the aroma.

You can have the rice either cooked before you start grilling the salmon, or during. But please make the mango salsa before you start everything, that way it is already ready.

If you’re making the mango salsa, the amount of fruit and vegetables are up to you. I chopped up the following for our dishes:

• mango

• cucumber

• red bell pepper

• tomato

• red onion

• watermelon

• juice of 1 lime to keep mixture fresh

For the coconut rice, I set our rice cooker to white rice setting, at 1 cup of rice, with a 2 cups coconut cream. Add in about a half cup chopped mint. After cooked, fluff up slightly for serving. You can add extra mint over entire dish if desired.

Ingredients for Lemon Herb Butter

• 1/2 cup fresh parsley

• 1 stick of butter

• juice of 1 lemon

Instructions for Lemon Herb Butter

Process all butter ingredients in food processor until smoothed out.

Take a sheet of saran wrap or fitted wrap, and place butter in a tube shape. Twist up the sides so that you can stick it in fridge to harden slightly. You’ll cut medallions from it when you bring the fish to grill. Have it ready on the side.

Ingredients for Salmon

• 2-4 sockeye salmon fillets

• 1 lemon to drizzle over fillets

• olive oil to drizzle over fillets

• fresh black pepper and kosher salt to taste

• Grill Mates Garlic Butter seasoning to taste

• to start the fish, prepare fillets (I had 3) with drizzling a bit of lemon juice

• full chimney of briquettes, about 100 charcoal pieces

Instructions for Grilling Salmon

Have the salmon prepped with oil, lemon and seasoning before you start grill. I keep it in the fridge covered until the grill is lit. While it’s heating up, I remove fish from grill to sit on counter.

Using a charcoal grill, clean accordingly first so that you can easily use a grilling spatula on the fish to avoid sticking. The grill grates need to be clean and at a high heat to achieve this.

Heat briquettes in a grill chimney before adding to grill bowl base. The salmon takes direct heat. The amount of coals depends on your amount of fish and temperature you need.

Prepare the grill for direct cooking over high heat, 450°F-550°F. Brush the grates clean as mentioned before and close lid to heat.

Place fillets skin side down over direct heat with the thicker side over direct, and thinner end over indirect for about 6-8 minutes. If you can lift the fillets without it sticking, they are ready to flip.

Turn salmon over, to cook the meat part of salmon for 3 minutes.

Flip the salmon one more time to place the butter medallions and cook for 2 minutes. The butter should melt pretty nicely.

Remove from grill.

Serve with coconut mint rice and mango salsa! Also optional are lime wedges for plate.