Grilled Salmon with Sandfire Greens

We recently spent some time in New Brunswick. As sad as I was to leave the ocean air and copious amounts of lobster, we were able to bring some of that salty sea taste home to enjoy for a few more days. Ah yes, probably one of my favourite things, Sandfire Greens. In French we call them Tétines de Souris (mouse nipples, because of the balls that form on the stems).

These succulent plants have a salty-seaweed taste to them and are delicious steamed and slathered in butter. I originally thought they were called Samphire Greens, as I think many people do, but I recently read that that the Samphire plant is a different one that grows on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Europe. Sandfire stems from the fact that the plant turns red as it ages and grows in the sand.

To eat them, simply pick it up and pull the green off with your teeth, kind of like you're stripping the last bit of ice cream off a popsicle stick.

And of course, we had to serve fish with them. A beautifully pink, meaty salmon on a bed of fresh rainbow chard and decorated with sprigs of dill flowers, both from our garden. We enjoyed every morsel, right into the sunset (or dark! do I really eat that slowly!?).

My husband chose the Eden Valley Chardonnay from my little wine cellar in the basement to go with this dish as it described itself as being the perfect wine for salmon with dill.