Spicy and sweet. It’s a combination that has been around for ages. Recently, I decided to break out the spicy Jamaican Jerk seasoning for some beautiful wild Sockeye Salmon, and pair that with a light and refreshing mango salsa that is ultimately sweet, but packs a spice punch of it’s own.

The salsa is the real star here. It takes the most time to prepare of the two, but is worth every moment. When you have the finished product in front of you, it’s hard to refrain from shoveling it into your mouth spoonful by glorious spoonful.

The best part is – you do NOT have to feel guilty about it!

Mango’s have an thin, oval shaped pit inside of them, and can be difficult to cut the fruit if you don’t know how.

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell which way the pit is oriented inside the fruit, and it’s a hard little bugger.

You can tell the orientation of the pit by the thickness of the mango. The pit normally runs parallel to the widest part, so when you make that first slice, you have to stand it up on the thinnest part, pretend that you’re going to slice it down the middle, then move your knife over about a quarter to a half an inch, and make the cut. You may hit the pit the first couple times you do it, but that’s okay.

To make your dice, score the flesh with your knife all the way down to the skin.

This is a nice skill to pick up for fruit presentations. Doesn’t it look pretty?

I get nit-picky, and dice up the rectangles further, but you don’t have to. All that matters is that you get something in the bowl.

You see the two halves, and the pit is that disc looking thing standing up next to the onion bowl. It’s such a weird pit, that normally I don’t bother trying to get the outside flesh off with a knife. Here’s what I do: I remove the skin from the pit part of the deal, and just gnaw on it as a little pre-meal bonus snack. Is that weird?

These were the only tomatoes I had, but they’re sooooo good it didn’t really matter what shape they were. Normally you’d use a bigger tomato for salsas, but I’m an equal opportunity kind of gal. Go to your local farmers market this Saturday and git you some before tomato season ends! Your body needs that lycopene and the taste they offer is exquisite.

This one is going in my belleh.

Jalapeno’s are next up! I dice mine like this:

I took the seeds out because I didn’t want the mango salsa to be too hot. The seasoning we put on the salmon will be hot too, and I don’t wanna kill ya.

Or me.

Or anybody.

Almost done!

All we need is a little lime juice and salt

That looks damn good.

To my dismay, the piece of fish I got from the market had not been de-boned. This is one of those things that you must do if your fish still has pin-bones in it when you get it home. It sucks, and I hate it, however it must be done.

What I do, is first make an incision as close to the pin bones as I can without cutting through them or cutting all the way through the flesh of the fish. This makes the pulling part a little bit easier.

I don’t really know the proper way to do this, or what tool is most efficient, so I used one of my cheese knives. It’s got a thick blade, and I just used the pressure of my thumb against the blade to rip those suckers out of there.

If anybody has any advice on this matter, I’m all ears!

Nasty little buggers

Since I’m trying to eat more healthy these days, I decided a simple sauteed zucchini would be a nice accompaniment.

I seasoned the salmon liberally with the jerk seasoning and a pinch of salt, and let her rip in a medium-high heat pan for about 3-4 minutes per side.

Done! Look at that color, will ya? Yums!

Serve with some lime wedges, and keep that salsa close to you! Trust me, you’ll want more.

Heavens!

Jerk Salmon with Mango Salsa

1 lb Salmon (preferably Wild Alaskan)
2 Tbsp. Jerk Seasoning
1 Mango, diced
½ C. Red Onion, diced
1 Jalapeño, seeded and diced
½ C. Tomato, diced
Juice of ½ of a lime
½ tsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Mix diced mango, onion, jalapeño, salt, and lime juice in a small bowl, and set aside. Before preparing the salmon, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Make sure there are no pin bones in the salmon, remove skin if desired, and cut into four equal portions (about 4 ounces each). Season both sides liberally with the Jerk seasoning, using as much or as little as you like. Add olive oil to the skillet, and place salmon skin side down. Cook the salmon for about 4 minutes on each side, until just done. Top with mango salsa, and enjoy! I served mine with sauteéd zucchini*.

Jerk Salmon w/ Mango Salsa Printable Recipe

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Overall Time: 28 minutes

Nutrition Information:

Servings 4
Calories per serving 286
Fat 13.1 g
Cholesterol 80.3 mg
Sodium 445.6 mg
Carbohydrates 12.1g
Fiber 1.2g
Sugars 2.4g
Protein 29.3g

*Nutrition data does not include sauteéd zucchini.