Recipe: Birch beer salmon and Three Sisters salad

Article content

This flavourful recipe, created by Chef Heat Laliberte for Nk’Mip Cellars, sees salmon paired with a colourful mixed vegetable salad inspired by the Indigenous legend of the Three Sisters — corn, bean and squash.

Article content

Birch beer salmon and Three Sisters salad

11 oz (312 g) Sockeye salmon filets

1 bottle Boylan’s Original Birch Beer

1/2 cup (125 mL) honey

1 can (540 mL) Western Family Six Bean Blend

5 oz (150 g) green beans

2 pieces corn on the cob

1/2 butternut squash

1 lemon

2 tbsp (15 mL) flat-leaf parsley

2 tbsp (15 mL) baby dill

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

3 tbsp (45 mL) red onion

Blackberries, halved lengthwise, for garnish

Cure the salmon

Cut salmon into two, 150 g portions. Lay the sockeye salmon in a plastic or ceramic container and season it generously with salt and cracked black pepper. Drizzle 1/4 cup of honey over the salmon. Pour Boylan’s Original Birch Beer soda over, immersing fish completely. Cover and let cure in fridge for 6-8 hours.

Article content

Honey and lemon dressing

Add chopped garlic to a bowl. Zest 1/4 of lemon into bowl with garlic. Juice full lemon into the bowl, straining out any seeds. Add 4 tbsp of honey and 1/3 cup olive oil, then stir to combine.

Three Sisters Salad

Set oven to bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn barbecue on to medium heat. Bring a medium pot of water to boil.

Drain and rinse the can of bean salad. Set aside. Dice the squash into 1/2-inch pieces, toss in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Once the oven has reached 400, roast the squash for 20 minutes.

Shuck the two cobs of corn, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill corn on barbecue for 2 1/2 minutes per side. Once cooled, use a sharp knife to cut kernels off the cob and set aside.

Article content

Once the of water has reached a boil, add a pinch of salt and place the green beans in the water for two minutes. Remove, then rinse the green beans in ice water for one minute. Cut into one-inch pieces. Finely dice 3 tbsp of red onion, 2 tbsp of dill, and 2 tbsp of parsley.

In a large bowl, add the beans, squash, corn, red onion, dill and parsley. Add the honey and lemon dressing and toss to combine.

Grill the salmon

Set barbecue temperature to high heat (between 400-500 degrees Fahrenheit). Take the salmon out of the fridge, remove it from the marinade and rinse it under cold water. Pat dry with paper towel, then place it on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

When grill is hot, place the salmon on the middle of the grill, flesh-side down for six minutes. Carefully flip and cook for another two minutes, then remove from grill and set on plate to rest.

Assembly

Arrange salad in middle of two dinner plates and lay grilled salmon overtop. Garnish with a few blackberries.

Serves two.