Salmon Gets Creative

I usually like my salmon grilled or smoked, but a few new products are making me open my mind. Alaskan Salsa Salmon, based in Anchorage, Alaska, makes Salmon with an ATTITUDE™ ($74.60 for 2/6.5-ounce and 2/13.5-ounce jars of the hot variety; other varieties available). This fish-inspired salsa is all natural with no preservatives added and combines wild Alaskan salmon with a mix of salsa sauce cooked in a jar. Each jar is hand packed and available in Hot, Medium or Mild. Suggested uses include mixing it with pasta, on rice, in an omelet or just eating it right out of the jar.

Alaska Distillery’s Salmon Vodka, made in Wasilla, Alaska, is the brainchild of owner Toby Foster, who markets the beverage strictly as an ingredient for Bloody Marys. Currently available at Alaskan bars and restaurants and some locations in the lower 48 states, this micro-distillery, which also makes award-winning, premium vodkas like PermaFrost and FrostBite, creates this unusual vodka by smoking the salmon, removing its skin, crushing the fillets and putting the pieces in a vat mixed with highly concentrated ethanol. The fish is eventually strained out and Salmon Vodka is born. It’s currently being marketed in Texas and soon will be in California as well.

To round out salmon’s potential, I found Salmon Ice Cream being sold in Japan. This soft-serve ice cream is mixed with dried powdered salmon to contain the aroma of fish. The French love it too: Erhard Tendances Creatives produces an ice cream appetizer flavored with smoked salmon…not to mention foie gras and Champagne. —Denise Shoukas

Denise Shoukas is a regular foodspring.com contributor and is the author of foodspring’s food forager blog.

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