Copper River Salmon Update

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend with family and friends and was able to enjoy a nice cookout with some delights from the seas or lakes! We planked some lovely Copper River sockeye, basted with our Irish whiskey maple glaze, and it was the easiest, most delicious crowd pleaser that you could imagine.

Last week we reported that we would be seeing lots of Copper River sockeyes but that kings would be scarce for the holiday weekend. Well that’s exactly what happened. It seems that not many kings are being taken yet. There are two openings this week, both 36-hour, on Monday and Thursday. The Monday opening was light on kings. I’m writing this on Wednesday the 30th and we have both gorgeous kings and sockeyes in the house and we’re hoping to have more for this weekend.

The Copper River salmons are truly the kings of the grill but of course these fish will probably be the best salmon you’ve ever tasted in any other cooking method that you’d use on other salmon; poached, baked, broiled, steamed and, as in this week’s recipe, pan seared are all excellent choices.

Today’s recipe has a light fresh sauce with oyster mushrooms, leeks and fresh herbs that really lets the salmon shine. We picked up the oyster mushrooms from Tantré Farm at our farmer’s market (they will have more this weekend) but you could use shitake or chanterelles as well.