Wow Lars, you hit the jackpot!!

I just ran to my recipe file -- there was a recipe from the L.A. Times magazine for bbq'd salmon dated June 27, 1976 that I rememembert as delicious!
6-8 lb salmon whole, cleaned
salt
pepper
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 cup green onions chopped
2 T minced parsely
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
grated peel and juice of one lemon
1/2 cup butter melted
4-5 lemon slices

Remove head from salmon, if desired. Place salmon on double wide thickness of foil, making sure foil is 3-4 inches longer than fish at each end. Sprinkle fish inside and out with salt & pepper. Combine mushrooms, onion, parsley, cheese, lemon peel and juice. Spoon mixture into fish cavity. Pour butter over fish and top with lemon slices. Cover with another thickness of foil and carefully seal all sides completely. Place on gril 4-6 inches from glowing coals. Turn ater 30 min (my notes say 20) and cook 20 min longer (my notes say low which probably has to do with my gas grill) If cooking on a smoke-type grill , open foil during last 10 minutes and close cover so smoke flavor penetrates.

We remember this as very tasty. I don't recall preparing an entire salmon in many years, but obviously we saved this recipe!

Good luck, let us know how it turns out. You've been MIA for awhile, I hope all is well!

I'm in Newfoundland and have been preparing all of your delights. Arctic Char, but is similar to salmon.
I would keep it simple for a stuffing. The flavor is so nice as it is. No competing cajun spice necessary. My go-to stuffing for whole fish is rice based. I start with aldente brown rice. Mixed with chopped green onion, celery, garlic, a few rough chopped black olives. Salt and pepper. I've used savory or dill if i have it. I always have chives. Stuff in the cavity and lay on slices of fresh tomato and slices of one whole lemon. Another lemon, half for juice, mixed with ev olive oil and brushed all over. The other half lemon in wedges for plating and adding fresh.
All wrapped in parchment, doubled if very large. Foil as an outer aid if needed.
I usually bake it whole, but if i am running out of stock i will remove the head and tail for that. (remove the eyes as it makes a cloudy stock. Some do not like stock from such and oily fish but i do for some richer fish stews. I just label it well and freeze for later.
If really large, you could cut in half for two different meals.
Had a big box of crab. One meal left in the freezer. I thaw it in the fridge, then bake uncovered in the oven in a roaster pan until just barely warm. (mine are pre-cooked and frozen in the shell like most are)
If you want to pick and freeze the meat i would not heat it, just thaw and pick still very cold. (Assuming yours is already cooked). Some would not re-freeze but its texture is not lost much and does re-freeze fine especially if using a food saver.
My bounty of lobster i steamed and froze. Have been using many ways....bisque, and in chowders, etc. Lobster rolls tomorrow for lunch.
Congrats. What a great surprise.

Fantastic with shipwreck pie...my own recipe. I keep meaning to share.

Lars, if you want to be really decadent, you could also do a crab stuffing for the salmon.

I have a recipe for Baked Prawns stuffed with crab. I'm sure the stuffing would work well with salmon too.

Gourmet 1996

18 jumbo shrimp
(about 2 pounds), shelled,
leaving tail and connecting shell segment intact
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Garnish: chopped fresh parsley leaves
Accompaniment: lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 375ðF. and butter a large baking dish.

For stuffing
1 cup chopped mushrooms (about 1/4 pound)
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons minced celery ribs
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound lump crab meat, picked over
1/2 cup chicken broth
32 Ritz crackers
(about two thirds of a 12-ounce package),
crushed into coarse crumbs

Make stuffing:
In a large heavy skillet cook mushrooms, onion, celery, garlic, and
parsley in butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until
softened and liquid mushrooms give off is evaporated. Add scallops or
crab meat and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, 3 minutes. Stir
in broth and cracker crumbs and remove skillet from heat.

Butterfly shrimp by cutting lengthwise along inside curve, almost
completely through. Split open shrimp and devein. Mound about 2
tablespoons stuffing onto each shrimp, pressing gently, and put shrimp,
stuffed sides up, in baking dish. Melt butter and drizzle over shrimp.
Sprinkle shrimp with paprika and bake 20 minutes, or until stuffing is
golden.

Garnish shrimp with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baked Stuffed Prawns

Thanks, all! I'm keeping all of these suggestions and recipes.

Ann, I was thinking of doing a crab stuffing, and I also thought of adding mushrooms, as Ellen suggested. Sleevendog's cooking methods is helpful also, and one of the important things for me is to figure out how to get the salmon cooked - whether I should grill/barbeque it or bake it. I still have a bit of time to decide, and I have pretty much all of the ingredients I need, except for the fresh dill, which I will get this afternoon. I generally do not use Cajun seasoning on salmon. I might use rice in the stuffing instead of bread - I think it will hold up better.

I've looked in several books for ideas, and I plan to pool whatever suggestions I find and come up with a combination that I think I will like. I will not be using fennel or tarragon because Kevin does not like fennel (dill is a better substitution), and I find tarragon too strong for salmon. I did find some good ideas for wine sauces from Julia Child and the Frugal Gourmet and will probably make one of their recipes for the sauce. I have spinach and shrimp in the freezer, and I might make the FG spinach sauce. I might need to get more mushrooms, but I think I have enough. I do have crackers, although not Ritz crackers.

I have an optometrist appointment at noon and will gather my ideas together after that and possibly go and buy a fish pan, although it seems I could use foil and/or parchment, which I already have. Of course I won't need the fish pan if I grill it, I guess.

You can probably tell that seafood is my favorite meal!

Lars

This post was edited by publickman on Sat, Aug 24, 13 at 17:52

I tend to be a bit more rustic simplicity...probably since i am always multi-tasking....4-5 apps and a dessert to try. Picking berries and harvesting vegetables.
Simplifying lends to cold salmon for sunday breakfast with fresh bread toasted with a dill yogurt sauce...and sunday dinner with salmon over pasta. Fresh tomatoes and what is available that also supplies a nice monday work lunch. Leftovers are always part of any cooking and overlap the next meal that also provides a few extra meals.

We went to Surfas today, and I bought a Paderno Fish Poacher (without looking at the price!), and I also bought a fish turner and a new stainless steel grill/steamer pan, similar to the Bobby Flay pans that we have, except that those have (had) a coated finish that flakes off, and we will throw those away soon. I am also disappointed with the Bobby Flay grill/griddle that I bought because it always rocks on the burners and never fits properly. I still use it a lot, however.

I am thinking that I may use Julia Child's recipe for poached salmon, as I have all the ingredients, and all I would have to do is put it in the oven and wait an hour. I think poached salmon might freeze well also, and we will be grilling the lobster tomorrow.

I still may make a baked salmon and simply bake it in the poacher instead of aluminum foil. I have the rest of the ingredients to make any of the recipes. If grilled salmon would freeze better, then I should do that, however.

Lars

I also would go for the crab stuffed salmon. I would do the salmon open face, topped with your favorite crab cake recipe, but replacing the bread crumbs in the crab cake recipe with cooked rice (brown, wild or white, or even quinoa would be nice).

On cedar planks on the bbq would be lovely.

We ended up cutting the salmon in two, and I poached the part with the head and froze the tail portion for later. I'm not sure poaching was a good idea, as the salmon did not have as much flavor as I expected, but it could be that the particular fish we got did not have as much flavor as I wanted. I'll find out more when I cook the tail portion. I used a Julia Child recipe for poaching, from her book From Julia Child's Kitchen, and it is very definitely a French recipe. Although she recommended it for salmon (and I saw her cook a whole salmon this way on TV), I think the recipe might be better for a different fish - I think it is a waste of salmon, but at least I did not use the entire fish. I do have a very good fish stock now as a result of making this, and I will freeze that until I figure out what I want to make with it. The recipe was one cup carrots, one cup celery, and two cups onion, all thinly sliced, and so I used my Cuisinart for doing the slicing, which it did very efficiently and made beautifully thin slices. When I tried to remove the slicing blade from the machine, however, I grasped part of the blade at the top and cut my thumb, which I had to bandage immediately. I do not think that the blade should have extended all the way to the knob at the top that has to be grasped to lift the blade - the blade could have been recessed half an inch, since that part of the blade was nowhere near the feeding tube. I'll be more careful in the future, but I think this is a flaw in the design.

We have a lot of leftover poached salmon, and I will make some sort of salad with some of it and try freezing a portion of it. I might try making salmon cakes from it as well, or some sort of baked dish.

Lars

I'll 'third' the crab stuffing. I stuff the salmon, lay on a double layer of heavy duty foil, large enough to wrap the whole salmon in, put thin slices of onion and lemon over the top skin, drizzle a little beer over it, wrap loosely and throw on the grill, or in the oven. When it starts smelling heavenly (like, I need to put that in my mouth NOW!) I turn off the grill, or oven, do not open, and let it sit for another five minutes or so.

Leftovers:

Salmon Caesar Salad
Salmon Cakes
Salmon Dip
An omelette TDF: salmon, slightly steamed asparagus, lightly sauteed mushrooms, a schmear of cream cheese over the top of the salmon/veggie mix, fold omelette over and drizzle (OK, drown) in Hollondaise. Would die happy with this as my last meal!

Did you make a dill or some other type of sauce to accompany the fish? Plain poached salmon is...plain.
Your planned dinner inspired me too...
Last night I found some super fresh King Salmon at the local WFoods. I decided on a fig balsamic glaze baked in a 400 degree oven. The glaze was made with the vinegar, dijon mustard and a bit of maple syrup reduced & thickened and then applied in the last few minutes of cooking. The result was delightful!
I served it with sauteed Swiss chard and spinach. DH had a small portion of roasted hatch chili pasta salad that WF was featuring as part of their hatch chili fiesta!

The glazed salmon was roughly based on Giada's Balsamic glazed salmon recipe. I'll try that one sometime soon!

Sounds delicious, all the different ways you are making the salmon.

I will be getting a whole salmon soon. I will copy some of your ideas.

dcarch

I think the leftover salmon is going to be good, and Kevin has promised to eat it even though he often will not eat leftovers - especially the next day. So last night I made Crab Louis with one of the King Crab legs (they were huge), and I froze the meat from the other two. To do that, I put the meat in a ziplock bag, wrapped that in a paper tower, and then put that into a Foodsaver bag. I plan to use it when my sister is here for Labor Day.

Yesterday I did a search for Salmon Croquettes because Kevin requested them, and I found a recipe from Ina Garten that I plan to adapt. I've been watching her at lunch (now that Time Warner no longer shows People's Court on Channel 9 because of the war with CBS), and while I do not learn much from her, I have noticed that she cooks very similarly to me - which is why I do not learn much - I already make everything that she makes. She adds minced, sauteed yellow and red bell pepper to her salmon cakes, and so I thought I would try that. If you do a search for Salmon Croquettes on YouTube, you will find some entertaining videos - one from a woman whose show is called "Ghetto Cooking". I did not realize that Salmon Croquettes was Soul Food, but maybe it is just Southern. Another woman (who is in Southern Colorado) calls herself Grandma CheapCheap and sometimes calls the dish "Simon Croquet", pronounced like the mallet game.

I put away more of the salmon stock in the freezer, but I saved enough to make a dill sauce for the croquettes that I plan to make this evening. I also bought some spinach so that I can make a spinach sauce for another dish.

I might freeze some salmon to make salmon dip for later. I don't think cooked salmon freezes that well, but I think it would be okay for a dip. I bought bagels to have with it and cut my thumb when I was removing a bagel slice that had gotten stuck in my electric meat slicer. I always use that for slicing bagels, and I can get four slices from each bagel that way - I prefer the thinner slices, and my doctor told me to cut back on carbs.

Lars