During a bright Rogue’s full moon, Shaun went gillnetting for chum in the discovery passage between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island. Chum salmon has high quality roe so it’s often caught close to spawning grounds when the flesh is lower quality. We prefer to fish the highest-quality chum salmon, known as silverbright, which is caught in the ocean and known for it’s bright silver skin color.

Our good friend, Chef Ned Bell from YEW Seafood + Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel shows us how to make a simple and nutritious meal using our wild chum salmon. It’s so simple that your kids can help!

Chum Salmon Fillet Recipe by Chef Ned Bell

Ingredients

Pan Seared Wild Chum Salmon Fillets

• Two 5 oz chum salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• Half a lemon
• 1 tbsp Canola oil
• Knob of butter

Seasonal Salad, Example

The great thing about salads is that you can make them any way you want – with whatever veggies you have on-hand. The ingredients listed below were what Chef Ned used in the video recipe. A lemon vinaigrette is a nice compliment to the citrus-glazed salmon.

• Butter lettuce
• Canned chickpeas, rinsed
• Roasted red pepper hummus
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Black olive tapenade
• Baby tomatoes (Chef Ned used Windset Farms heirloom style tomatoes in the video)
• Lemon vinaigrette
• Dried olives for garnish

Directions

1. Bring a cast iron or stainless steel pan to high heat, add the oil.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the salmon fillets on both sides.
3. Lay the salmon fillets in the pan – be careful not to splatter yourself.
4. Cook 2 to 3 minutes on the first side.
5. Flip the fillets and add the knob of butter.
6. Squeeze the lemon juice into the pan and continue cooking for about 2 minutes.
7. Tilt pan and using a big spoon to glaze the salmon with the lemon and butter… mmm, you’ll be salivating at this point.
8. Put together a seasonal salad using the veggies and ingredients your family enjoys. Add the vinaigrette.
9. Serve the wild chum salmon fillets over a bed of the salad you made, and finish with your favourite garnish.

Local food builds community. When you buy direct from a fishing family, you gain insight into the seasons, the ocean, and your food. It gives you a chance to show your children and grandchildren where their food comes from. Local food is also an investment in the future. By supporting local fishermen and farmers today, you’re helping to ensure that there will be fishermen and farmers in your community tomorrow.

Here at Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery, we connect you with local fishermen to foster the protection of ocean resources while providing premium, wild, fairly-traded, Ocean Wise seafood.

We offer membership shares in a flexible, buy-down system where you can pick up what you like, when you like, at a location near you. We have pick-up locations all over Canada.  

This project is supported by the BC Government’s Buy Local Program; delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC with funding from the BC Ministry of Agriculture.

The BC Ministry of Agriculture is committed to working with industry partners. Opinions expressed in this blog post are those of Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery and not necessarily those of the BC Ministry of Agriculture or the Investment Agriculture Foundation.