Orange-Pickled Salmon with Goat Cheese

Aug 5th, 2010 by vinegarlic

I never imagined that I would find myself pickling fish, but a couple of weeks ago when I found myself with an extra salmon fillet on my hands I recalled noticing a pickled salmon recipe in Linda Ziedrich’s The Joy of Pickling. I quickly decided to give it a try. After salting the salmon in the refrigerator for one week I rinsed it and allowed it to soak in a bowl of water in the refrigerator overnight. I then skinned the fish, cut it into pieces, and pickled it according to Ziedrich’s instructions, except that I used a leek instead of an onion. I liked her suggestion of adding orange slices to the pickle, but since I’m not a fan of orange peels I used navel orange segments instead.

The ingredients of my pickle, only slightly modified from Ziedrich’s recipe, were:

1 5-6 oz. salmon fillet, salted for 1 week then soaked in water overnight, skinned and cut into pieces
1 leek, white and light green parts only, sliced
segments of 1 navel orange
2 teaspoons pickling spice
1 garlic clove, chopped

and over this a brine of

1/2 c. white distilled vinegar
1/3 c. water
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 teaspoons pickling salt

The pickle soaked like this in the refrigerator for one week. The flavors blended splendidly; the combination of the orange and salmon was unforgettable. I made some whole wheat English muffins (from the The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book), spread them with goat cheese, and topped them with the orange segments and salmon pieces.

Before tasting this salmon I had no idea whether I would like pickled fish. Now that I’ve eaten it, I plan to make a much larger batch very soon.