Mukilteo Musings

SALMON--orca food and janet food

I have loved salmon since I was a little girl and we'd go to Idaho from Montana and catch the big Kings out of the Salmon River. Of course, salmon no longer exist in Idaho due to disastrous environmental policies but it is plentiful here.

Last night I had Copper River sockeye with a tomato-basil sauce. My Dad used to wrap a whole salmon in foil with tomatoes, onion, bacon and homemade rhubarb wine and then he'd roast it over coals or in the oven. My husband cooks salmon on the bbq with a butter garlic basil wine sauce. Another favorite recipe is to marinade it for 30 minutes in a soy/ginger/orange marmalade/garlic sauce.

Copper River salmon from Alaska--both King and Sockeye are highly prized and only available this time of year. There are several types of salmon and its relative, the ocean going trout, and in order of deliciousness:

1. Chinook or King
2. Coho or Silver
3. Sockeye
4. Pinks or Humpbacks known as Humpies
5. Chum or Kita
6. Steelhead (ocean going trout)
7. Ocean going cutthroat Trout
8. Kokenee (found in freshwater like Flathead Lake, MT)

And last and LEAST
9. Farm-raised Atlantic--aware Pacific Northwesterners will not eat this because it is detrimental to our wild salmon and to our local fishermen. Besides, it tastes terrible.