Maple Glazed Salmon with Orange and Fennel Spinach Salad

By EdieK

This meal is a treat for your family or for a dinner party.

Salmon filets or steaks are marinated in a luscious mixture of soy sauce, garlic, maple syrup and frozen orange juice concentrate. Then they are simply grilled.

The result is an almost candylike coating on the salmon which works perfectly with the rich, flavourful meat.

This combination comes from Maggie Dyck of Waterloo, a wonderful cook, longtime friend and brilliant person. She’s been a homemaker and travel agent for the years I’ve known her, but could just as easily be running a multinational corporation.

Maggie says she doesn’t remember where she got the recipe — perhaps from a sister on the West coast — but she’s had it for years.

“It’s always a hit,” she told me. “Especially when people say they don’t like fish — they always seem to like this recipe.”

She usually serves the salmon with basmati or jasmine rice, and a wonderful salad of spinach, red onion, fennel and orange, bathed in an intriguing orange-scented dressing. I’ve included that recipe below as well.

The marinade easily makes enough to coat six or more pieces of fish. My advice is to make extra, and serve the leftover fish cold for lunch or dinner the next day. It’s wonderful.

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Ingredients

• For the salad:
• 4 to 8 salmon filets or steaks
• Half a cup (125 ml) orange juice concentrate (thawed)
• Half a cup (125 ml) maple syrup
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons (45 ml) dark soya sauce
• One package (about 10 oz. or 250 g) fresh spinach, washed
• 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• Half a small red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 oranges
• One -third cup (80 ml) light mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) grated orange zest (from one of the oranges)
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) orange juice
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) liquid honey
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Dijon mustard
• Half a teaspoon (2 ml) salt, or to taste

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

.Four hours before you want to eat, lay the salmon down in a large dish that will hold all the pieces in one layer. Mix the orange juice concentrate, the maple syrup, garlic and soya sauce, and pour over the fish to coat well. Cover the dish and refrigerate.

2.When you are almost ready to eat, heat the grill. While it’s heating, you could rinse and dry the spinach leaves, slice the onion and fennel (being careful to avoid the hard core of the fennel bulb) and peel and cut the oranges into bite-size pieces.

3.Grill the salmon over medium-high heat, usually about five minutes per side, or until salmon is opaque and flakes easily. If the salmon is thicker than one inch (2.5 cm) add another 10 minutes of cooking time for each extra inch of thickness. Discard any leftover marinade.

4.While salmon is cooking, mix together the mayonnaise, vinegar, orange zest and juice, honey, mustard and salt to make a dressing. Toss it with the spinach, fennel, orange pieces and red onion.