Harris Smokehouse Wild Raw Salmon 300g

Harris Smokehouse Wild Salmon, 300g. A fresh, skin-on portion of wild sockeye. This one is not smoked — it is raw fish, sold to cook.

The fish

Wild caught Canadian sockeye from an MSC certified sustainable fishery. The pack carries three claims and all three are worth reading: wild caught not farmed, MSC certified sustainable, and 100% natural in colour. That last one matters more than it sounds — sockeye is naturally this deep red, while farmed salmon is fed a pigment to reach a similar shade.

Skin on, and the pack serves two.

How to cook it

Sockeye is much leaner than farmed Atlantic salmon, so it wants a shorter cook and a hotter pan. Sear it skin-side down until the skin crisps, then give it barely a minute on the flesh side and take it off while the centre is still translucent. Cooked all the way through it goes dry and stringy, which is what puts people off wild salmon when they treat it like the farmed stuff.

It also roasts well in one piece at high heat for a short time, and the crisp skin is the best part either way.

The smokehouse

Harris Smokehouse is a fourth generation family business at Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills. They are better known for what comes out of the smoker, but they sell the raw fish too.

Keep it refrigerated.

Available at Leichhardt and Crows Nest, or for Sydney delivery.