So here I was thinking to myself – what shall I make for dinner? As I often do, I trolled around the “tinternet” and decided to choose Grill Grrls’ blog to find something different. For those of you who don’t know Grill Grrrl, you can find her blog on our home page. Well, as luck would have it, I got an email just the other day from Grill Grrrl commenting on our Sptachcock Chicken entry. I was flattered and taken back a bit as this was all too strange…culinary karma!
Anyway I picked a few dishes to play with and came up with a delicious combination of “Lemon-Dill Butter Cedar Planked Salmon with roasted carrots, bacon wrapped asparagus and Texas toast borrowed from Bobby Flay.
Now there was also a dessert that I will post separately as that little ditty deserves it’s own spotlight. However for the purpose of not keeping anyone in suspense, dessert was a “Rum-Berry Cobbler” done on the BGE! YUUUUM! This was pure genius!
OK, so the recipe:
Ingredients: (this is enough for 3 large servings)
1 cedar plank, soaked for at least an hour and then oiled with olive oil
Olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Salmon, 3 large fillets, skin on (though it will come off if your plank isn’t oiled well enough…)
Carrots, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons maple syrup
one stick of butter
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 of White bread (available at Cold Storage’s Swiss Bake) bread sliced thickly for Texas Toast
Directions:
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. Place the cedar planks on direct heat and close the lid. Now GG does this on indirect heat – I’ve always done my planking on direct heat with no ill effects. I will try on indirect heat one day but for now, I go with flame….grunt!
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 and close the lid of the grill. After about 5 minutes, add the veggies (both carrots and asparagus.) 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). You can also test the salmon with the finger pressure test. There should be some give but not mush…I grilled these fillets for 25-30 minutes simply because of their size. I think Heather and our guest David agreed…the fish was done really well! The only miss tonight was that the bacon burned off too quickly. This is where the indirect heat would have been better….live and learn eh!? Perhaps if I had used the tiered grill I wouldn’t have charred the asparagus so badly.
When the fish starts to look done, add your texas toast pieces that have also been generously slathered with garlic butter. They will be done with they have grill marks on both sides – literally 90 seconds on each side.
All in all a fabulous meal with fabulous people! Thank you Robyn for the recipes and the inspiration to try something new…the cobbler. Blog entry to follow!
R
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