Salmon with Brazilian Garlic and Lime Marinade

In my ongoing attempt to find random recipes to inspire my generally uninspired palate, I stumbled across Worldwide Recipes and signed up for their mailing list. The intent was for them to provide me with ideas, as I rarely come up with them on my own. This serves the dual purpose of pushing me to experiment with new flavors as well as preventing me from eating sandwiches 5 nights a week.

The recipes provided by the list so far have been surprisingly accessible and, perhaps more importantly, quite global in theme. Last week's theme was "marinades and sauces", and I copied at least two of them down for future use (more on the second coming soon). I made small modifications to the mixing of the ingredients, so my recipe is below. This version turned out very nice, but rather overpowering for salmon (or indeed, most any fish that I can think of; it might pair well with swordfish, or something with a *very* distinct flavor to it) as the lime comes through quite strongly. My roommate and I agreed it would go much better with a more "robust" meat--oddly, we both agreed that lamb would be the best choice, so I may give that a shot sometime in the future.

Brazilian Garlic and Lime Marinade

4-8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tbs (15 ml) coarse salt
3/4 cup (180 ml) lime juice
1/4 cup (60 ml) dry white wine
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh parsley
2 scallions (spring onions), green and white parts,
finely chopped
1 Tbs (15 ml) chopped fresh rosemary
Cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a plastic zip-top bag or a bowl that has a lid and set the meat in it to marinate. For fish (fillets especially, as I was using), I'd suggest marinating no longer than 30-60 minutes, as the fish can get rubbery from the acids. For red meat, you could probably marinate for up to 6-8 hours, depending on the thickness of the cut and how tender you like the meat. I generally set steaks to marinate overnight anyway, so 18-24 hours might be OK, but I haven't tried it myself with this particular marinade.


After marinating the salmon, broil for about 20 minutes or until the color has changed from a solid pink to a somewhat muted peachish, depending on the thickness of the fillets (mine were about 3/4in. thick, and came out just about perfect) and salt to taste. I garnished it with remnants of the marinade as well as a sage chiffonade for a little extra zing.


The sage was probably unnecessary, as it got rather overwhelmed by the very strong lime flavor. I served the salmon with some garlic bread, which actually helped keep the lime from overpowering things, so it made a surprisingly good side dish. It would also pair well with other salty foods: perhaps some potatoes au gratin, asparagus simmered in butter, or wild rice.

Lessons learned:
Not a lot of lessons, so much as modifications for next time. Perhaps this would be better titled "future improvements". Regardless, I would probably actually cut the lime juice down to 1/2c and add 1tbsp of Worcestershire sauce for some added salt, but that probably detracts from the Brazilian theme. Also, as I mentioned before, I would definitely use this with a stronger meat, such as lamb or beef (or perhaps buffalo, but that's not really my taste, and I don't know how many buffalo are left roaming about the broad open plains of Brazil). As a final addition, I would add a bit more spice to the marinade; I was somewhat shy with my rooster sauce this time, and it didn't really come through at all. Cayenne pepper might have been a bit stronger.