Wake up your tastebuds with this spicy salmon recipe which takes only minutes to prepare and is perfect for casual summer dining outdoors. The fish is marinated in a spicy mixture using ground ginger, honey and the “hot” variety of Spanish pimentón (or paprika). This gives the salmon a smokey flavour with a hit of pepperiness which is sublime.

Fresh, quality salmon tastes good, is visually appealing with its coral pink flesh and very versatile, as its high fat content means that it can be grilled without losing its succulence. It is also excellent for your joints, heart and brain as it is high in Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

Cooking and other tips

Buy the freshest and best quality fish you can find. The firmer flesh will make it easier to thread onto skewers, without the fish falling apart. (Click on fish buying tips).

To save time, you can buy your fish ready skinned and filleted but if you need to fillet and skin your fish, see pic below. If you prefer not to put the fish onto skewers you can follow the marinade recipe and simply grill the fillets whole.

I used a non stick electric griddle pan as I find it is a good way of getting a barbeque finish, without risking over or undercooking your food and it is also a lot easier to clean up afterwards!

RECIPE

Ingredients

Serves 2

(For more people, increase the amounts accordingly. As a rule of thumb, calculate around 150–200g of fish per person).

• 500g fresh skinned salmon fillet (skinned and sliced).

For Marinade:

• juice of 1/2 lemon
• around 3 tbspns of olive oil
• 1/2 heaped tsp hot pimentón (or if you have only got the sweet variety, add a pinch or two of ground chilli powder)
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp runny honey
• salt.

Method

1. Make up the marinade by mixing all ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Cube salmon into medium sized squares (around 1inch or 3 cms wide). The pieces should be large enough to enable them to be skewered without falling apart.
3. Season the fish cubes and coat with the marinade. Cover bowl and marinate salmon in the fridge for about half an hour.
4. Grease 4 large skewers with a little olive oil and thread around six or seven fish cubes onto them. Drizzle top of fish with a little oil.
5. Heat a non stick griddle pan and when it is piping hot, place the fish skewers onto it.
6. After about 4 to 5 minutes gently turn the skewers and cook for around 8 minutes in total or until the flesh is opaque and flakes away easily. 
7. Enjoy!