Smores on a Cedar Grilling Plank?

Note about the guest blogger- Robyn Medlin

Robyn is the Grill Grrrl. She leads Women’s Grilling Clinics which focus on healthy, simple, and creative recipes on the grill.  Thanks for the beautiful recipe Robyn!

Photo 1: When looking for cedar planks, make sure they are sustainably made.

There’s just something about salmon cooked on cedar planks that makes it that much more enticing. It must be the smoky flavor from the grill that coaxes the cedar flavor out of the wood and into the fish while also permeating the air with a cedar-smoke-charcoal perfume. After making this dish, I woke up the next day to smell a faint hint of cedar in my hair, as if I was wearing a men’s cologne I was mildly attracted to!

About the cedar. Sure, Cedar grilling planks are readily available wherever you can buy meat or charcoal accessories but I would like to stress the importance of buying SUSTAINABLE WOOD. Outdoor Gourmet offers sustainably reclaimed cedar, milled close to the forest where it was grown, meaning less consumption of resources and fossil fuels for transport.

Photo 2: Organic rainbow carrots- straight from the farmers market!

Ingredients: (this is enough for 2 large servings)

* 2 cedar grilling planks, each one large enough for a large piece of salmon

* Olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

* Salmon, 2 large fillets, skin off

* Rainbow carrots, sliced thinly (I found these at the farmer’s market, regular carrots are fine to use but make sure you slice them thinly so that they will cook enough on the grill)

* 1 tablespoon maple syrup

* one stick of butter (this is to make compound butter, you will not be using this much butter in this dish!)

* large sprig dill, at least 1/8th cup

* 2 lemons- 1/2 for juice and zest for butter, 1/2= for slicing and putting on top of the salmon as it cooks on the grill

* One loaf Italian or Cuban bread or your favorite, sliced thickly for Texas Toast

Photo 3: Lemon-dill compound butter adds nice flavor to the salmon as it cooks on the grill.

Photo 4: Once the salmon can be flaked with a fork, it is ready!

Directions:

Soak cedar grilling planks on the grill for AT LEAST 30 minutes, preferably one hour. You need to soak them so they don’t catch on fire on the grill.

While the cedar is soaking, go ahead and take your butter out so it will get to room temperature so you can make the lemon dill compound butter.

Chop the carrots lengthwise into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Drizzle the carrots with olive oil, then add sea salt and pepper. Drizzle the maple syrup onto the carrots. Toss the carrots so they are coated evenly.

Next, take your butter and mix it with the juice of 1/2 a lemon and a large sprig of dill. Add approximately 2 teaspoons of lemon zest. Mix with a blender or chopper to disperse evenly. Add sea salt to taste.

Preheat the grill to medium, about 350 degrees. Prepare coals or gas burners for indirect heat. Place the cedar grilling planks on the indirect heat and close the lid. Let them sit until they begin to smoke, about 15-20 minutes.

Generously coat the salmon pieces with the lemon-dill butter. Add a lemon slice or two to the top. Add sea salt and pepper on both sides.

Add the salmon to the cedar planks (on indirect heat) and close the lid of the grill. After about 5 minutes, add the veggies to the direct heat side of the grill. Let the salmon grill until the internal temperature reaches 135 degrees. The salmon will be done when the meat will flake easily with a fork – this should take about 20 minutes (give or take).

When the fish starts to look done, add your Texas toast pieces that have also been generously slathered with the compound butter. They will be done with they have grill marks on both sides.

What is fun about cedar planking salmon is that the planks make wonderful serving pieces. I added my veggies and bread to the other side and placed the planks on top of comics from the paper to make a fun place setting.

Sit back, relax, and relish in the face that this easy recipe has now transformed you into a Grilling Goddess with cedar perfumed hair. The house will have a lovely smell for days to remind people what a great cook you are ! Enjoy!

Photo 5: Cedar planks are great for serving your finished work of art! I served these on top of the comics for a fun presentation.Welcome to your weekend.

Five minutes before the meat is ready, toss the soaked cedar grilling plank on the grill to warm up. Once the grilling plank is warmed up, drape that saucy loin straight in the center.

Remember that video above? Yeah, my plank made it 12 minutes before succumbing to physics:

Rather than call it quits, I finished the pork on the grill – but it was still amazing! Sure, I can only imagine how much better it could have been, but not all was lost. Once the meat was done, I wrapped it in a loose foil tent to rest for another ten minutes:

After the juices settled and the meat cooked itself, slice that piggy up and serve immediately. I might recommend flanking the protein with sides of corn, grilled (in foil, garlic, oil and rosemary) potatoes and flame-grilled garlic toast. Freaking delicious!

As for the specifics, here you go. I started with a marinade I had tried before on steaks, but the switch proved most succulent! Also, while this marinade is essentially a Korean BBQ sauce, I was adding more and less than the recipe said, dialing in the flavor I wanted. Feel free to do the same.

MEAT

1 Pork Tenderloin (1-2 pounds)

MARINDADE

1 Green Onion, finely chopped

Zest of one orange

½ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon honey

2 cloves minced garlic

1 ½ teaspoons sesame seeds (ground)

1 teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon minced ginger root

Grind the red peppers and sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle. Then grind in the minced garlic. You want to talk about perfection? You just created the base for it! Place all the ingredients in a bowl, mix together. Add meat to a Ziploc bag (larger = better) and pour marinade over all of it. If grilling in less than an hour, leave in bag on counter. If longer than an hour, keep refrigerated. And, as with most marinades, the longer the better!

COOKING Direction

Soak the cedar plank for AT LEAST TWO HOURS; don’t make me remind you again why this is a good idea. Once the grilling plank is soaked, preheat the barbecue to medium-high. Set grilling plank on grill for 5 minutes and then lay pork loin on pre-heated board. Wait 15 minutes, flipping pork halfway through; flip pork and baste with marinade every 2 minutes for the last 10 minutes of grilling. Remove meat from grill and place in a loosely-fitting foil tent for 10 minutes. Boom shakka lakka, dig in!

Welcome to your weekend