UCLA Luskin Conference Center Quarterly Newsletter — August 2019Jeromy Sung, Plateia Restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine, with the final product.

Cap off your summer with the best grilled salmon recipe ever!

What better way to spend the dog days of summer than making this delicious recipe for grilled salmon with eggplant-tomato and crème fraîche sauce, a feast for your eyes and taste buds. Created by our very own Jeromy Sung, Chef de Cuisine at Plateia Restaurant in the Luskin Conference Center, this recipe is popular with the restaurant’s patrons. The yogurt and crème fraîche provide a nice counterpoint to the warmth of the eggplant, tomatoes and salmon. So good, you’ll want to make it year-round!

Grilled Salmon with Eggplant-Tomato & Yogurt Sauce

Servings: 2

Preparing the Yogurt Sauce:

Mix the crème fraîche, plain yogurt and Greek yogurt in a bowl and season it with salt. Set aside.

Ingredients

  • 2 pieces of salmon (6 oz. each),
    keeping the skin at least on one side
  • 1 eggplant
  • 1 whole lemon
  • 8 each cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon of parsley
  • Salt to taste
  • Black pepper to taste

Preparing the Eggplant:

  1. Place the whole eggplant on the grill. Char it for about 10 minutes until the skin bursts and it is a completely mushy texture.
  2. Peel the skin and scoop out the flesh into the bowl with the yogurt and crème fraiche.
  3. Season the eggplant with 1/4 cup olive oil, lemon juice, parsley and salt and stir until well blended.

Preparing the Salmon:

  1. Let the fish sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Prepare a grill for medium-high heat.
  2. Season the salmon with salt on both sides and place on the hottest part of the grill, skin-side down. There’s no need to add any olive oil since salmon is an oily fish.
  3. After approximately 2 minutes once the salmon has grill marks, flip the fish and let it cook until the internal temperature reaches 125 degrees F.
  4. Remove it from the grill, let it rest for three minutes and then serve.