When gourmets whisper about "The King" in hushed tones, they aren't talking about Elvis. They mean Copper River wild king salmon from Alaska. These fish are revered. Chefs, fishermen, gourmets and connoisseurs are in awe of their size, beauty, richness and sensual flavor.
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Copper River king salmon gets the royal treatment at Benkowitz Seafood in the Strip. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette) |
In the past five or six years, the demand for Copper River salmon has grown to almost hysterical proportions, as soon as the fish are available in mid-May.
In Seattle, signs are up days in advance announcing their impending arrival. From the airport, police escorts lead refrigerated vans carrying the first prized "kings" to restaurants, such as Palace Kitchen and Ray's Boat House, and to specialty grocers lucky enough to snag part of the earliest catch. People line up at the doors and fish counters.
Other cities catch the fever to a lesser degree, but the anticipation is no less. They're coming, they're coming!
Here in Pittsburgh, chef Daniel Mosedale is keeping up with the stampede at the Original Fish Market Restaurant in the Westin Convention Center, Downtown.
"People have been ringing up for the last two months to get the exact date when they will be on the menu," says Mosedale, 33, a native of the United Kingdom. "I'm buying the biggest, fattest fish I can get my hands on, 15 or 20 pounds. I take the pleasure of cutting it myself."
Much of Mosedale's allotment will go to master sushi chef Sang Woo, who will plate the purest imaginable presentation of the salmon -- raw -- as sashimi and sushi.
"The beauty of the Copper River kings is their luxurious flavor," says Mosedale. "It's highlighted best by a minimalistic approach to the cooking. There's no benefit from excess heat or complicated sauces. I cook it skin-side down in a little olive oil so that it crisps, and sprinkle with a little sea salt and freshly ground pepper. We'll cook it to medium-rare, done on the outside, but slightly rare in the center. If anyone objects to that, well, I'm going to have to talk to them."
Simple, straightforward preparation doesn't mean boring. "I like to serve the wild salmon with Asian vegetables, such as bok choy and tatsoi, because their high water content is refreshing with such an oily fish," says Mosedale, whose culinary training has taken him to three-star restaurants in France, Australia and Jamaica. "Other presentations might include roast fennel puree or couscous with preserved lemons."
Entrees will change daily until the end of the salmon run, toward the end of June.
"It's not just a mystique. This fish is as good eating as it gets," Mosedale says, as he holds up a snazzy, square-ish plate with swoopy lines that reminds him of the bottom of the ocean. "I even bought new plates to celebrate the occasion."
The Copper River
The Copper River is so named because its mineral content is higher than that of other Western rivers. Its rocks are stained by mineral deposits, mainly iron, cobalt, zinc and copper. These minerals leach into the river.
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| Copper River Salmon Tartare, a creation of Original Fish Market executive chef Daniel Mosedale, features the prized fish with avocado and cucumber salad. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette) | |
"You are what you eat" holds true for fish, as well as for humans. The flesh of the Copper River salmon has a copperish hue. The orangish cast is subtle, and only a practiced eye might detect it, but it is there. The higher mineral flavor of copper river salmon along with its higher fat content (and more about that shortly) contribute to its unique flavor.
The Copper River originates at Copper Glacier on Mount Wrangell, in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. It is 300 miles long, passes 12 large glaciers and drops 3,600 feet through the Alaska wilderness before reaching the Gulf of Alaska. This intense slope combined with a considerable spring thaw creates a dangerous river with ferocious currents and rapids ripping through the canyons and switchbacks. There are longer rivers, but none quite so difficult for salmon to navigate.
Wild salmon are born in the freshwater streams of the headwaters. They swim downstream to the saltwater Gulf. After three years of living in the ocean, the now-mature salmon get the urge to return to spawn -- a 50-cent word that means to lay their eggs -- in the exact spot where they themselves were spawned. Only the strongest and most determined salmon are able to challenge the waters and continue the journey to the river headwaters.
It is just before the journey begins that a limited number of licensed professional skippers are allowed to set their nets and harvest the "king of kings" working the outside waters of the Copper River Flats in the Alaska Gulf. These are the most robust fish in their prime that are rushed to waiting restaurants and consumers. The predicted catch for Copper River king salmon this year is 49,000 fish, a calculation based upon the 10-year average.
The strength of future salmon runs depends in part on the successful journey of the rest of the uncaught fish to their spawning grounds. And it's all uphill from the Gulf. When the salmon reach the breeding grounds, they lay their eggs and fertilize them. Then they are spent, exhausted and ready to die at the hands of nature or in the claws of eagles, raccoons and bears. By mid-June, the run is over. A new cycle begins.
High fat content
The high fat content of Copper River salmon helps to power and insulate them as they navigate the length of the cold, swift river and try to overcome the ruggedness of its path. Why? Because wild salmon do not feed once they have entered fresh water, and they must depend solely on their own body fat and natural oils to provide the energy needed to reach their spawning sites.
Eat the fat? Yes, because theirs is "good fat," and omega-3 is the buzzword.
Long version: Omega-3s are the polyunsaturated fats contained in fish oils that are thought to help prevent heart disease and stroke. Omega-3 is an essential fatty acid that must be obtained through food. Fish is a natural source. Because of their incredibly long journey, wild salmon build up high levels of Omega-3, largely under their skin.
Short version: Eat more salmon. Eat the skin, too.
Salmon 101
Copper River salmon are not a separate species. It is the name given to the salmon that swim up that river. Rather than call them by their hardly pronounceable Latin species names, we'll call them by their market names.
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Original Fish Market executive chef Daniel Mosedale serves his Copper River king salmon almost rare with fingerling potatoes, oyster mushrooms and saffron emulsion. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette) |
King, or Chinook, are the largest of all salmon and also the most popular. How you identify the fish depends on who you are. Americans call it the king; American Indians use their tribal word, chinook. These fish can weigh from 25 to 80 pounds, although the record stands at 100 pounds. The ocean fish are a beautiful, silvery blue-green, but upon entering the river they turn bright red to dark copper. They run from early May to the end of June.
Sockeye, or Red, are the next-most-valued and popular salmon, running between 4 and 15 pounds. They are bright silver-colored, but when the ocean sockeyes run upriver from late spring through late summer, the spawning adult salmon turn bright red with green heads.
Silver, or Coho, salmon are the second-largest species of salmon, weighing 10 to 20 pounds and running from August through November. Silver is the American name and coho is the Indian one. Although these are considered fish of the Northwest, they will swim as far south as the Sacramento River and as far north as the Yukon River.
There are two other salmon you don't hear much about.
Chum salmon go by an alias, Silver-Brite, whose spelling makes it sound like a kitchen cleanser. This is merely a marketing trick to try to fool the consumer into thinking chum salmon is a silver salmon. Chum spawn in rather shallow waters, so they don't need to build up the fat reserves needed to swim long distances. As a result, they don't have a high fat content and their flesh is neither unctuous nor desirable.
Pink salmon are called that because there is a pink tinge to their skin. This is a trout-size fish of 1 or 2 pounds and it is extremely soft and perishable. It is found in Alaskan rivers only, and the whole catch goes directly to the canneries built at the mouths of Alaskan rivers.
The familiar Atlantic salmon is quite a different fish. Although few wild salmon are caught by sportsmen who fish the rivers, there are no wild Atlantic salmon available for commercial fishing, according to Paul Koenig, fresh fish buyer for Nordic Fisheries. Atlantic salmon are all farm-raised, and they offer a completely different taste experience.
Serendipity
Seventeen years ago, ALL Copper River salmon went into cans that sold for less than a dollar each. There was a cannery at the mouth of the Copper River that took every fish that arrived at its back door, filleted it, canned it, steamed it, slapped on a label and sold it -- like a Campbell's Soup operation. Every salmon that came up the river to the cannery met this fate.
Enter Jon Rowley, an independent food consultant and writer based in Seattle and the promoter of many products of the Northwest. While on a research project in the mid-'80s, he tasted some Copper River king salmon.
Wow! he thought, why are we canning this? It's amazing. It should be served in the best restaurants in America. Rowley persuaded a few chefs in Seattle and Chicago (home of one of his clients) to feature wild kings on their menus, and the demand for the fish was in the water, so to speak.
Because of the short run, word-of-mouth was a long time building. In the past five or six years, however, clamor for Copper River king salmon has crossed the line.
Where to buy
Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware. If you are going to pay an arm and a leg for a piece of fish, you'd better trust your fishmonger or know your restaurant.
Any salmon out of the Copper River can be billed as "Copper River Salmon." Make sure you are getting king salmon, not a substitute. Because of the richness of the fish, smaller portions -- 5 or 6 ounces -- will satisfy most appetites. Expect to pay in the neighborhood of $25.95 a pound.
The best source is Benkovitz Seafoods on Smallman Street in the Strip.
Among the other markets, which will have salmon on a limited or special-order basis only:
Wholey Seafood Company in the Strip
McGinnis Sisters, Monroeville
John McGinnis & Co., Castle Shannon
Giant Eagle, Waterworks
Recipe: Copper River Salmon
Keep it simple. Just salt and pepper, and grill. There is enough fat in the fish to take the heat. Grill just until barely opaque, about 3 to 5 minutes. It will pan-saute or poach, too. Don't go overboard and overwhelm the salmon with exotic sauces and ingredients. New York chef Dave Pasternack of Esca cooks it like this.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 6- to 8-ounce Copper River king salmon fillets
- Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
Heat olive oil in a nonstick saute pan. Add fillets, skin side down. When skin blisters, about 1 minute, place pan in oven and roast for 8 to 12 minutes to medium rare.
Remove pan from oven and heat over high flame until skin crisps, about 2 minutes. Think undercooked and it will be perfect. Season. Serve skin side up. Makes 4 servings.
Some quick recipes
To broil salmon fillets or steaks: Place the salmon on a foil-lined baking sheet, skin-side up, and broil about 6 inches from the heat for 5 minutes. Turn off the boiler but do not open the oven or remove the salmon for about 5 minutes. (Northwest Essentials Cookbook)
To roast salmon fillets: Roast, skin-side up, on a rimmed baking sheet in a 225-degree oven for 20 minutes. (From chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten)
To grill salmon fillets, steaks or sides: Beware. Salmon can stick to the grill even if you oil the rack. You may wish to strew some aromatics underneath the salmon, such as sliced citrus or onions or herb sprigs. Grill, skin-side down, if applicable, on an oiled rack over direct heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the fish to an area of indirect heat and cook until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily.
Marlene Parrish is a Mount Washington-based free-lance food writer.
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