Cedar Planked Salmon

 

submitted by Ted Mackel
 

Ingredients

2 lbs - Salmon Filet
1 Cedar Plank (www.chinookplanks.com)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons chardonnay
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic
Several fresh rosemary trimmings


Soak the plank in your sink for about 30 minutes in hot water. Preheat your oven or barbeque. Oven temp should be at 400-450. If you are going to use a barbeque, turn the barbeque on high and close the lid. Those with charcoal barbeques will need a babeque with a lid.

While the oven or barbeque is preheating, prepare the marinate as follows: thouroughly mix in a bowl, olive oil, soy sauce, chardonnay, ginger, pepper, and lemon juice. Add the garlic either by mincing the clove or use a garlic press. Next, add only one tablespoon of brown sugar and mix all the ingrediants. If the oven or barbeque is still preheating and the plank still needs to soak, marinate the filet until the plank is finished soaking and the oven or barbeque is fully preheated.

Next, place the filet on the plank and smother with the marinate. Place two sprigs of rosemary on top of the filet and slide the planked filet in the oven or barbeque.
For those who are going to use a barbeque, place the planked salmon on the grill and put the lid on the barbeque. You must monitor the cooking as the plank will buckle, crack, smolder and even catch on fire. For those using an oven you may expeience the same excitement in your kitchen.

Please use extreme caution in your oven as the plank could start an oven fire and burn down your home. After about 30 minutes in the oven the salmon should be ready to be fired under the broiler. Open the oven and take the palnked salmon out. Sprinkle one tablespoon of brown sugar over the filet, turn the oven to broil and put the planked salmon under the broiler. The sugar will carmelize and burn if you are not careful. When the sugar is bubling and boiling on the filet and and the filet has a crisp glazed look, the filet is ready.


This style salmon can be served several different ways. If the plank is smoldering, extinguish the smoldering parts of the plank. Using a large serving tray, place kale leaves around the perimeter of the serving tray and place the plank in the middle of the tray with the leaves partially tucked under the edges of the plank. This plate goes well with garlic roasted red and yellow new potatoes and steamed asparagus topped with bearnaise sauce.


Cedar Planked fish is very ancient method of cooking that has been used for generations by Native Americans of the Northwest Pacific. The recipe above is a variation of the recipe provided by Chinook Planks. There are two kinds of planks, disposable and a reusable plank. I prefer the disposable planks as I can take them with me camping and it makes for an easier clean-up. The disposable planks are the size of a shingle, however, most shingles are treated with fire retardants. Make sure if you choose to go to the lumber yard to purchase cedar planks, ask if the wood has been treated with chemicals. Use only pure untreated cedar. Other fish and game can be cooked on the planks, give it a try. Bon Appetite!