caipirinha salmon

Before I say anything else, go to your local seafood supplier and get some wild caught salmon while it’s still available!

It won’t be here for long, so take advantage of it while it’s here.  Wild caught salmon is the way to go.  Copper River salmon is gone, but there’s still some great stuff coming in from Alaska this season.

We picked up a fillet of Sockeye salmon yesterday, and I wanted to grill it right away while it was at its freshest.  But the question was how should I fix it?

Grilling was the obvious choice, but I’ve fixed salmon the same way for the last couple of years.  Recently, I found a drink that I really like called a caipirinha, made with cachaça, a liquor made in Brazil similar to rum but made only with sugar cane. In other words, good! Add lime, sugar and ice, and you have a caipirinha, Brazil’s national drink. I thought those same flavors would go with the salmon.

I poured a bit of cachaça on the salmon, added cane sugar and lime juice, salt and pepper, and let it sit for a while as the Bubba Keg grill heated up. I also halved a couple more limes to grill to add some grilled lime at the end.

I grilled the salmon for a few minutes skin side up just to get started, then flipped the whole thing over for about 5 more minutes, until the salmon was about medium rare to medium, not overcooked (that would be a horrible thing to do to salmon like this!).

Served with a bit of juice from the grilled limes and accompanied with a caipirinha… What a great Sunday dinner.

I’d love to hear how you grill or smoke your salmon; I’m getting more!