The Leafy Secret To Grilling Salmon While It's Still Frozen

Nothing is more frustrating than going to your kitchen to cook a dish you've been looking forward to making, only to discover that the meat was never taken out of the freezer. However, if you were planning on cooking salmon, there's no need to worry! Frozen salmon can be cooked without thawing and there are plenty of ways to do it, from pan-frying frozen salmon filets to wrapping them up in grape leaves and tossing them on the grill.

While pan-frying frozen salmon is a great option for a quick and simple meal, if you want to pack in the flavor, go with the grape leaves. The addition of the leaves helps keep the fillets moist and also prevents the fish from sticking to the grill while cooking. Grape leaves are edible and are often used in Mediterranean dishes for their salty, lemony flavor — perfect for salmon!

But where can you buy grape leaves? It's easier than you may think. You will find these delicious little fermented leaves being sold by the jar at Greek and Middle Eastern grocery stores, on Amazon, or at Walmart.

The first step to cooking frozen salmon is always to rinse each fillet under cool water. This will remove any ice crystals. After rinsing, make sure to pat dry. Once you've done this, warm up the grill and start preparing your seasonings. The Food Network recommends making a marinade from olive oil, salt, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, and oregano. You can also use your favorite fish marinade, a few shakes of the sesame-infused spice blend called za'atar, or keep it simple with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Now, it's time to wrap. To do so, grab a grape leaf from the jar and lay it on a clean surface, smooth side down. Then place another leaf on top of the first one, overlapping by about an inch. Continue placing overlapping leaves on the table in a line. Three leaves should be enough. Now, grab a fillet and place it on the table perpendicular to the first leaf. Start rolling the salmon while wrapping it in the leaves and make sure the entire fillet is covered before moving on to the next. Once all your salmon is wrapped, simply grill the parcels for a few minutes, until the leaves are charred in places, then move to a cooler area of the grill until the fish is done cooking (around 12 minutes).

While it's true that thawing salmon before cooking can give the fish a better texture, there are certain benefits that come with keeping the fish frozen. If you use pre-thawed fish for this recipe, you'd have to give the fillets time to soak in the marinade before cooking. However, when using frozen salmon, the marinade tends to stick to the fillets and then melts and soaks into the leaf-wrapped fish during the grilling process. No marinating time necessary! Another reason you may want to choose frozen over thawed salmon is that frozen fillets are easier to flip on the grill. This is because frozen fillets cook slowly and are less likely to fall apart than pre-thawed fish.

Now you have delicious grape leaf-wrapped salmon fillets, but how can you serve them? If you want to stick with the Mediterranean theme, whip up a quick and easy tzatziki sauce to drizzle on top. You can also plate them alongside a Greek salad, lemony potatoes, or rice pilaf. Meanwhile, a video for leaf-wrapped fillets posted by Florida-based fish farm Bluehouse Salmon on Facebook suggests spooning a "Mediterranean red pepper olive relish type deal" over the top.