Hot Salmon with Pineapple Salsa

When I think about a dinner that screams SUMMER! – for whatever reason, my go-to is fish with a fruit salsa. I don’t know about y’all, but I always am more interested in fish in the summer – I can mentally transport myself to the ocean and pretend that fish just got hauled in a few minutes beforehand. And as for fruit salsa, that’s kind of a no-brainer. Who doesn’t appreciate the sweet, juicy bounty of summer harvest fruits? As you can see from one of our first recipes from last summer, I have a template when making a dish like this. Salmon (my favorite fish of the easily-accessible-at-the-grocery-store varieties) + spicy flavoring on the salmon + cool, juicy, & sweet contrasting salsa. Hey – if it ain’t broke, why try to fix it?

Hot Salmon with Pineapple Salsa

(Salmon inspired by Little Spice Jar blog)

Ingredients: 

• Salmon
  • 2 salmon portions (~5-6oz each)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp hot sauce (we used Frank’s)
  • 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 turns fresh ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
  • Pinch of ancho chili powder
• Salsa
  • 2 cups diced pineapple
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 1 bell pepper, diced
  • 3 tbsp lime juice
  • 3 turns fresh ground black pepper
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions: 

1. Prepare the salsa. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Refrigerate until time to eat.
2. Whisk together all of the ingredients under the salmon bullet, except the salmon itself.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Place the salmon portions on a piece of foil large enough to fold around the salmon.
5. Paint the hot sauce mixtures on all sides of the salmon.
6. Close the foil around the fish, pinching the edges closed.
7. Bake on a cookie sheet for ~15 minutes. [FDA recommends a safe minimum temperature of 145 degrees F.]
8. Open the foil and turn oven to broil. Broil, which watching closely, for just a minute or two to crisp up the top.
9. Serve salmon with salsa on top.

Dinner for two. There is a lot of salsa – we intended it to be a topping/side dish, but it’s plenty to serve with 4 or 6 portions of fish.