SERVING 4

There are numerous beautiful and famous salmon rivers in Iceland. In the olden time the catch at some farms was so bounteous, that farm hands stipulated in their contracts that salmon be not served but only two or three days in the week. Nowadays salmon fishing is regulated by the owners of the farms on the rivers and salmon fishing has become a sport, where in numerous cases the fisherman is not even allowed to keep his catch. Still, people flock to the rivers, and quite understandably so, for it is a grand experience to be at a good salmon river, have a huge and noble beast on the line – and then release it at the end of the encounter watching it free again moving grandiosely in its fluid element.

The salmon
28 oz / 800 gr fillet of salmon
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 lemon
1 orange
2 tbs honey
Salt and pepper

Season the fillet of salmon with salt and pepper. Then sprinkle a few strands of thyme on the fillet and scrape some of the zest of an unpeeled lemon unto the fillet with a zest grater. Do the same with the orange. Now peel an orange and a lemon and cut the fruit into slices. Place these on top of the salmon. Finally dribble some honey over the fillet. After this the salmon is ready to be barbecued. The barbecuing time should be about 15 minutes.

The salad
1 bell pepper (green, yellow, red)
2 tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 head green kale / cabbage
1 chili pepper
Sorrel
Salt and pepper

Cut up the bell pepper, the tomatoes, not too fine, though, finely chop the cloves of garlic and put the prepared vegetables in a hot wok pan. Chop up some green cabbage and add it to the contents of the wok and sauté the whole with the chili pepper. Season the mixture in the wok with salt and pepper, and take care not to over-do the vegetables, or the bell peppers and the cabbage may lose their crunch. When the cooking in the wok pan is done add the fresh sorrel and toss the whole together thoroughly.

Serving
Make a bed of the vegetables on a platter and place pieces of the fillet of salmon on top. This succulent fare can be served in every setting, but a very nice place would be out in the open, preferably on the banks of a softly flowing salmon river, with the running water rustling softly against the banks, offering fitting back-ground music.