Grilled Cedar Plank Salmon

Gordon Whann

Grilled Salmon on Cedar Planks

First, go to a local lumber store and buy a cedar board. Ensure it hasn’t been treated in any way. I bought an 8ft board for only $13.00. I then cut it into 10 in. lengths. Below, I am soaking the wood in water for about 4 hrs with a heavy lid on top keeping the wood below the surface. This will prevent it from catching on fire during grilling.

Here, I am getting the salmon steaks ready for grilling. I cut out the back bone and then removed the skin and save for later. I will pan sear it for a nice crispy garnish.

Be sure to remove the bones and using a needle nose pliers works great. Simply use your fingers to find them.

I am using a sweet brown sugar sauce to baste the salmon with. The ingredients are: 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tsp grainy mustard, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp dry dill, 1/2 tsp dry thyme, 1/2 tsp fresh thyme, 1/2 tsp garlic, 2 tbsp shallots, 1/4 tsp smoked paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tbsp honey, and salt and pepper to taste.

Our Salmon Ready for the Grill

Turn the grill up high placing the cedar boards smooth side down to dry the surface. When dry, move the cedar to the other side of the grill without direct heat under it.

Using a brush, top the cedar with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

Place what was the skin side down on the cedar.

Top the salmon with your sweet sauce.

Here, I used the other side of the grill to finish cooking our corn on the cob and lemon slices. I cooked the fish for approximately 20 min. since the grill didn’t get that hot from the indirect heat. If I had placed the salmon directly on the grill above the heat, the rule is 8-10 min per inch thickness of the fish.

The corn was previously cooked in the microwave for about 3 min. wrapped in a moist paper towel.

Here you can see how nice the grill makes the cooked corn look, and trust me, it tastes great as well.

The fish is cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 135’F. With salmon, you will see the white fat leaving the fish and the texture will become slightly firm. About 5 min. to the end of the cooking process I placed a bit more brown sugar on the fish to give it that great caramel flavor. I wasn’t sure if the brown sugar on the fish would work but it did! The sweetness from the brown sugar and honey pared with the smokey paprika, lemon, and heat from the cayenne really worked well together.

Above, I pan seared the fish skin for a great crunch factor.

Remember to salt and pepper it when done. The grilled lemon is another great flavor and decoration for the dish. The wood makes a great presentation with some fresh herbs.

The Perfect Accompaniment

Malaysian Seafood Curry and Black Rice

Kiwi Green Mussels

The Best in the world!

The ingredients for this dish are:

2 tbsp olive oil, 1 lg onion diced, 2 zucchini diced, 2 tsp garlic minced, 2 tsp fresh minced ginger, 2 cans coconut milk, 1 tsp red curry paste, 1 tsp sambal, 15 New Zealand Green Mussels, 2 plum tomatoes, 18 med. scallops, 8-10 Kaffir lime leaves, 1/4 cup diced red, yellow, green bell pepper, salt and pepper to taste.

Saute the vegetables with the exception of the tomato in olive oil until tender in a large pot or dutch oven as I did.

In a separate pan, saute the scallops in olive oil and butter shown a few pictures below. Once cooked place them with the vegetables and add the mussels.

Now, add the red curry paste, sambal, and coconut milk to the pot and stir well.

Cook on a medium temp. for about 10 min. being sure not to boil the coconut milk since that will make it curdle. I also sauteed some scallops lightly just enough to get some color to them and added them to the dish.