Chili-Maple Glazed Salmon

By Ann Fulton

A simple spice rub and easy glaze meet heart-healthy salmon in this effortless entree that's worthy of the regular dinner rotation!
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A simple spice rub and easy glaze meet protein- and omega 3-rich salmon in this effortless entree that’s worthy of the regular dinner rotation!

 

 

Early every spring, on a family farm in Lander, Pennsylvania, friends of ours engage in the annual tradition of “sugaring.”  The labor of love requires hand-drilling their Maple trees, removing hundreds of gallons of sap, boiling it down, to be rewarded with a sweet, sticky condiment that goes far beyond pancakes.

As they were engaged in this process, I was coincidently reading a book called “The Dirty Life”, a true story in which a woman leaves her chic New York City life as a travel writer to work on a farm and start a year-round farm share with a man she ultimately married.  (Great read, by the way!)

In the book, they were boiling down hundreds of gallons of sap, just as my friends were doing the same in Landers.  The sap is boiled in an “evaporator” which has a huge fire burning underneath and must be tended constantly.  Amazingly, it takes about 45 gallons of sap to yield one gallon of syrup.  The sugaring season occurs in the spring, when temperatures dip below freezing at night, and are above freezing during the day.  Depending entirely on the weather, the season can start in February and last until April.

I have long cooked and baked with maple syrup for its robust sweetness.  A natural sweetener, it pairs well with savory dishes and provides a sweet counter-balance to tangy ingredients like Dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar.  

One the first salad dressings I created is Maple Dijon Vinaigrette, in which these ingredients are simply yet perfectly balanced.  I have, in turn, used that on roasted vegetables for delicious twist.

When we received a tin of this incredible syrup as a generous gift, I was inspired to cook with it in new ways.  The following salmon recipe is sure to be a year-round favorite in our house, and perhaps in yours.  It’s easy enough for a casual weeknight meal but special enough for company.

Our friends also shared some fun pictures from their annual sugaring expedition!

Early every spring, on a family farm in Lander, Pennsylvania, friends of ours engage in the annual tradition of “sugaring.”  The labor of love requires hand-drilling their Maple trees, removing hundreds of gallons of sap, boiling it down, to be rewarded with a sweet, sticky condiment that goes far beyond pancakes.

There are several types of maple trees suitable for tapping syrup, although the sugar maple is considered the best because it has the highest sugar content.

Early every spring, on a family farm in Lander, Pennsylvania, friends of ours engage in the annual tradition of “sugaring.”  The labor of love requires hand-drilling their Maple trees, removing hundreds of gallons of sap, boiling it down, to be rewarded with a sweet, sticky condiment that goes far beyond pancakes.

The white tap that you see drilled into the tree is called a spile.

Early every spring, on a family farm in Lander, Pennsylvania, friends of ours engage in the annual tradition of “sugaring.”  The labor of love requires hand-drilling their Maple trees, removing hundreds of gallons of sap, boiling it down, to be rewarded with a sweet, sticky condiment that goes far beyond pancakes.

The sap that comes out of the tree will be clear and will taste like water with a very slight sweetness to it. Sap flows the best when temperatures climb into the 40s during the day but dip below freezing at night.

Early every spring, on a family farm in Lander, Pennsylvania, friends of ours engage in the annual tradition of “sugaring.”  The labor of love requires hand-drilling their Maple trees, removing hundreds of gallons of sap, boiling it down, to be rewarded with a sweet, sticky condiment that goes far beyond pancakes.

It takes about 45 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup. Professionals boil the sap down in a “sugar shack,” using a large, flat vessel called an “evaporator”, as pictured above.

 

Chili-Maple Glazed Salmon
Yield: 4 servings (recipe is easy to scale up or down)
This year-round favorite is easy enough for a casual weeknights but special enough for company. Plus, it's loaded with heart-healthy omega-3s!
Ingredients
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground ancho chile powder (may substitute regular chile powder)
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 4 (6-ounce) fillets salmon
  • 2 tablespoons (40g) pure maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Preheat the broiler.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the paprika, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, and salt.  Rub the spice mixture over the salmon.  Place the salmon on a baking sheet (see tip, below) and broil for 6 minutes or until not quite cooked through.  Remove from the oven, baste with the maple syrup, and broil for 1 minute or until nicely glazed and barely cooked through.
  3. The salmon will continue cooking a bit once removed from oven, so be sure not to overcook.  When in doubt, don’t hesitate to take a knife and cut just enough to peek inside.
Notes

Prefer not to eat the skin? Line your baking sheet with foil-but do not grease it-and place the salmon fillets skin side down.  Once cooked, the skin will stick to the foil and you can gently slip your spatula between the skin and the flesh. This is an easy way to remove the skin and makes clean up a snap! If you’d like to keep the skin and the easy cleanup, simply line the baking sheet with foil and lightly grease or spray it.

A few more things… Leaner, firmer wild salmon, like sockeye, will cook faster that the comparatively fattier farmed salmon. When using a thermometer to gauge doneness, I aim for an internal temperature of 120℉ for wild salmon and 125℉ for farmed. When in doubt, check a little early and look for an internal temperature of roughly 10℉ under before broiling.

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Comments

  1. Deborah McDavid
    (5/5)

    Great recipe. Great flavor and easy to make. The spices definitely complimented each other and the spicy mixed with the sweet …… just perfect❣️best salmon recipe I’d ever tried or eaten.

    Reply