Kokanee On The BBQ

BBQ Kokanee on Horse Lake, BC.

Anders with two Kokanee

Fresh BBQ'd seafood is one of my favourites. In September of this year we were camping in Chilcotin and in the Cariboo, in our beautiful province of BC.

One of the places we stayed at is the Cariboo Bonanza Resort. The owners Bruno and Dora Sprecher are from Switzerland and are the perfect hosts.

The Resort is very nice, clean and tidy, one of the nicest we have come across.

Bruno gave me a crash course on catching Kokanee (Thanks Bruno), and sure enough I caught two of them.

Grilled Kokanee

Kokanee is a land locked Sockeye Salmon. It is very similar to the Sockeye Salmon in the ocean except for size and weight.

The Kokanee is usually 8-20 inches long, most are in the 9-14 inch range compared to 24-33 inches for a mature Sockeye.

They both turn bright red when spawning and have an approximate 4 year life cycle.

Cooking seafood is not as forgiving as beef or pork. Seafood cooks faster and you don't want to over cook. What I did for this recipe was to marinate one of the Kokanee in Niko Sauce (or use a teriyaki sauce) from Campbell River, BC. The other one I just put on the BBQ with nothing on it.

The ingredients then:

• Two fresh Kokanee (about 1.5-2 lbs)
• Niko Sauce, for marinating

The fish cooks pretty fast on the BBQ, so keep an eye on it. I cooked it for about 5 minutes on each side.

Serve with fresh steamed vegetables and some lemon wedges.

Wine Pairing and Recommendations:

For a wine, serve a nice crisp Pinot Gris from Tinhorn Creek

Kiss the Cook,

Anders