Spiced Barbecue Salmon

Salmon on the barbecue is delicious, but you do need one of those patent fish holders to cook this recipe on the grill successfully. Alternatively, it will cook very nicely in a barbecue oven.

For six people assemble:

900g salmon fillet, skin on
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp coriander seeds
6 cardamom pods
30mls olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

First extract the seeds from the cardamom pods. The easy way to do this is to lay the pods on your work surface, lay the flat blade of a knife over them and thump it with the side of your fist. The pods will burst and you can easily scrape out the seeds.

Grind them to a powder with the cumin and coriander. You can make an improvised pestle and mortar from a small bowl and the handle end of a rolling pin.

Mix into the resulting powder half a teaspoonful of salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

Now score the skin of the fish at frequent intervals, brush it with olive oil and press the spices into it. Let this stand for about 30 minutes for the flavors to be released.

Salmon prepared in this way will cook on the barbecue grill in about 15 minutes. Start it off skin side down and turn over after about 10 minutes. The skin should be crisp but not charred.

If you prefer to cook it in the barbecue oven it will take the same amount of time, but you won’t need to turn it over.

You can also cook it in a conventional oven preheated to 230°C, 450°F. In this case place the fish on a lightly oiled baking tray. The cooking time is the same.

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