Anchored to Alaska’s rainforest-shrouded coastline, Barnacle Foods shares the flavors, sights, and stories of the uncommon delicacies from the surrounding region. Founded in 2016, Barnacle Foods makes pantry goods from Alaskan kelp (yes, seaweed!) sourced through sustainable wild harvest and regenerative rope-grown sea farms. The flavor-boosting kelp is the first ingredient, adding richness and depth to mouthwatering hot sauces, seasonings, salsas, BBQ sauces, and more. At Barnacle, they’re on a mission to share foods that do good for the ocean and coasts, the local communities, and the future. It doesn’t get more Alaskan than this.
VENISON BACKSTRAP
When cooking steak, it’s hard to beat wood fire. The sizzle of meat and fat on a hot grill over wood coals adds flavor and will be a memory for all lucky enough to be there. Pairing with a kelp-based BBQ sauce adds elements of sweet, smoke, and salt that’ll leave your taste buds satisfied and your buddies in good spirits. This recipe calls for venison backstrap, which is the equivalent of ribeye for beef. You can sub in venison tenderloins or beef ribeye. If using beef ribeye, your cook times will be a bit longer. Keep the venison backstrap or loins whole; a piece about 8-10 inches long is ideal.
Ingredients
Venison backstrap
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Olive oil (or your preferred cooking oil)
Barnacle Foods Kelp & Alaskan™ Amber Ale BBQ Sauce
1. Prepare a full backstrap or tenderloin, as it will stay juicier and more tender than if you slice the piece into medallions before cooking. The day before you plan to cook, dust the meat with salt on all sides.
2. About 30 minutes before you grill, pull the meat out of the refrigerator and rub on some olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper.
3. Make your fire, getting the coals hot. Place meat on grill and slather on BBQ Sauce.
4. Let it sit over the fire without touching it for about 6-8 minutes, or long enough to get a healthy sear and grill marks. Flip and brush on more BBQ sauce. Cook side two for another 5-6 minutes, depending on how thick it is. Check the internal temperature and pull it off the heat once you reach about 125-130 F in the center. The temp will rise for a bit after you pull the meat off, and you don’t want to end up above 140 F. This’ll be medium-rare.
5. Let the meat rest, untouched, for 10 minutes. Slice it into thin medallions and slather on more BBQ sauce.
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SOCKEYE SALMON & CREAMY SAUCE
WITH KELP PICKLES
There’s no better pair than fresh salmon and savory, salty kelp pulled from the cold Alaskan waters. Cooking salmon over a smokey fire complements the fatty, tender flavors of wild sockeye or any salmon for that matter. Once doused with smoke and fire, slather the salmon with a tangy cream and top with crisp Dill Kelp Pickles for the ultimate Alaskan seafood combo. Kelp pickles add a tangy, fresh flavor to the rich and savory salmon, and their perfectly round rings are a spectacle for eyes and bellies to behold. Ingredients
Salmon
2-4 fillets of wild Alaskan salmon with skin on; sockeye is a crowd-pleaser, but you can’t go wrong with king salmon, coho salmon, or even keta salmon
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Olive oil & Sea salt
Creamy Sauce with Kelp Pickles
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp kelp pickle brine
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Barnacle Foods Dill Kelp Pickles
1. To make the creamy sauce, mix sour cream, kelp pickle brine, salt, and mustard in a small bowl. Set aside until the salmon is cooked.
2. Rub the outside of the salmon (the skin side) and the flesh side with olive oil; sprinkle a healthy dose of sea salt on each side as well.
3. Place the salmon skin side up on the hot grill; use some pressure to press it into the hot grill grate.
4. Cook for 3-4 minutes until salmon starts to become opaque, then flip the salmon so that it lays skin-side down on the grill.
5. Cook over the fire until the salmon reaches an internal temperature of 120 F.
6. Remove the salmon from the fire, top with a dollop of the cream sauce and kelp pickles.
There’s no better way to enjoy the edible treasures of the Alaskan coast than sharing with friends around an open fire. We hope that with each bite―and with each pop of a Barnacle Foods jar―you get a glimpse into the wild places and people behind the ingredients. Learn more and purchase online at www.barnaclefoods.com.
