Grilled Salmon Sandwich

You have some leftover grilled salmon. You have a desire to have an absolutely delicious lunch. You are in luck!

There are other things there in that picture, too, lthat grilled tomato, and that steady companion of excellence in taste when eating fish, the lemon. But most importantly there is that sauce in which the salmon was marinated. EVOO, soy sauce, lemon juice -- this combination of ingredients propels what is in other respects a simple sandwich way out beyond the bounds of gravity into a taste spaceship zooming for the outer reaches. That is truly memorable.

And it's easy, so easy that you will wonder why you haven't done this before. Though, of course, if you never have any leftover grilled salmon, I can understand why you haven't. But next time maybe you will grill extra salmon, just so you can have leftovers.

All you have to do is start with the right ingredients, which you will have right to hand if you take my advice about planning ahead and grilling extra pieces of salmon. Here's how to turn these things into the most scrumptious lunch you can imagine.

This loaf of sourdough bread (other types of bread can of course be used as well) is too small to produce large enough slices for the salmon unless you slice off a big piece from the loaf and then slice it properly.

That's what we are going to do.

And cut off its bottom, leaving the middle as a separate piece. We now have three sections: top, middle and bottom.

We are doing this because if we just cut our piece in two, the bread in the sandwich would be too thick and would overwhelm the grilled salmon. We want to be able to taste the salmon.

We are going to use the top and the bottom for our sandwich -- the center piece can be saved for another sandwich at a later time.

Of which we need the bottom two of the ones shown in this picture.

This is a sandwich we are making, after all.

And this is a great beginning, particularly if the bread is sourdough bread that truly tastes like sourdough bread. Tasting the grilled salmon in the sandwich is, of course, the main thing, but the bread should contribute something to the end result as well. Sourdough bread sliced like this does exactly that.

Some would say that this is not essential, but I like the flavor this adds.

Grilled sourdough bread, grilled bread of any sort, is one of the world's great taste treats, and when used with something like grilled salmon is even more delicious.

Besides, it looks so great there on the plate.

Dijon mustard on one half.

Mayo on the other.

Heaven in between (coming up!)

I use this combination of Dijon mustard (regular or coarse grind) over and over again in sandwiches of all types. The combination of these two basically represents a kind of sauce.

First, add some of that sauce the salmon was grilled in, sauce that is still in the pan -- it contains lemon zest, capers, extra virgin olive oil, and soy sauce.

Second, transfer a big piece of the left over salmon to the plate.

Third, top the piece of salmon with that grilled tomato. (If you don't have a grilled one, a fresh one works just about as well).

Variations: I can't think of any. You can't improve on perfection, can you? If you can, please Comment below and let us in on the secret.

What a lunch! What a meal!

There's a lovely half lemon there for squeezing on the salmon periodically. Keeps the taste fresh, bite to bite.

Looks good on he plate, also.

An alternative treatment.

On a previous occasion.

Just as mouth-watering.

Here we used a sourdough baguette rather than slices from a loaf cut in the peculiar way described above. Here we just dribbled the remaining pan juices onto the baguette. And here we sliced the grilled salmon up a bit so that it would conform to the shape of the baguette.

You may have detected by now that we grill salmon often. Correct. See, for example, Grilled salmon. And Salmon grilled soy.

Most of the salmon eaten in the United States and in Europe comes from farmed salmon, that is, salmon grown as cultured fish in a controlled environment. The largest areas where this farming is done are in Chile, Norway, Scotland, Canada and the Faroe Islands, all countries in which wild capture in the ocean was once the major way of reaping the benefits of this very delicious fish. The value of the world’s farmed fish each year is said to be about $10 billion. This makes salmon the king of farmed fish, considerably ahead of tilapia, catfish, sea bass, carp and bream.

This farming of salmon is a complicated matter. Salmon feed on other fish, and for farmers to produce enough fish for them to feed on is difficult. It is said that salmon actually consume more fish -- "wild forage fish" -- by weight than they produce in their own bodies. The extraction of wild forage fish for salmon farming thus affects the survivability of the wild predator fish which rely on them for food.

Real Meal. Unlike fancy food mags, where images are hyped and food itself is secondary, all pix shown here are from a real meal, prepared and eaten by me and my friends. No throwing anything away till perfection is achieved. This is the real deal --- a Real Meal.