Dead simple. Salmon, in a rimmed baking tray, with salt, pepper, onions, and a lot of vermouth. Baked at 350F ish. Garnish, devour. A friend made this, but I garnished :-)

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oh yeh... salmon

here is a friend cooking salmon at another one of those drinking parties we have...


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finished product:


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unfortunately, he isn't quite clear on the cedar plank thing... instead of grabbing a board off of the cut ends pile, or even buying an entire fence plank for a buck and whacking off the end to cook salmon on, he paid about $10 for a couple of "special" "official" Salmon Cooking Cedar Planks at some grocery store! He's an xlnt chef tho.

I received some of those ridiculously overpriced slivers of cedar for grilling - XMas present - bought from William Sonoma. Imagine it was $30 for about $0.50 of wood.

my friends cut old (free) cedar fence boards. i know one guy that does the salmon in an ancient cast iron pan filled with cedar wood chips.

either way, it is a great dish. rwebb, that looks amazing.

one thing about old (used) fence boards - you want ones with no stain on them

another traditional wood to use is alder

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Roasted chicken. Stuff with lemons. Lard with bacon strips under the skin. Pat dry. Dust with salted flour. Whirl up some butter, garlic, chicken fat, and bacon in the food processor, then melt in microwave and baste the bird during roasting. Started at 425 F, turned up to 450 F when I got impatient. Skin turned out crisp and crusty, meat wasn't dry, not the tastiest meat but I didn't have time to brine.

Bowl of chili. No pic.. I ate it already and the bowl is clean.

I say a can of hot chili is a great lunch. Really great.

Cedar is for kindling. Applewood is for baking salmon. And frankly, I'm getting tired of folks over-topping the salmon. Had a "chef" the other day put a huge blob of stuff on a salmon filet recently. Next time, I'll push all that stuff off and eat the salmon. In my way of thinking, salmon needs little seasoning.

I do like to put dill and turmeric on white fishes, like cod, then fry them. Salmon......what else do you need? Butter. Maybe pepper and a little garlic.

Y'know, I think the planking thing (besides being a fad) is just a way of not overcooking salmon. That's the real key. One minute salmon is done.....thirty seconds later, it is overdone and dry.

Agreed. Plank schmank. Methinks those things are a fad and are a silly way to cook a salmon. Especially at 20 bucks a fr****n plank! Unless you soak them for days they start on fire, can't be used more than once or twice, and, if not cleaned properly they stink. To properly cook a BBQ'd salmon filet leave off all the taste masking stuffings and flavourings and just use the the skin as a "plank" over the grill or coals, keep the heat low, remove when done and then flavor and garnish as you wish. Easy. This is the way the West Coast natives have been doing it up here in B.C. forever - and it's very tasty.:):). If you really feel the need for a plank -try a BBQ pizza stone instead.

When I lived in CT we used to go shad fishing in the CT river and the Sound. A 50 foot long trench was dug, hardwood coals created, fileted shad nailed to hickory planks that were the placed vertically at the edge of the coal line and there they cooked/smoked.

We had huge picnics back in those days. Miss the country.

plank always seems to give a bit of taste to me, but have never tried a test to eliminate placebo effect

as pointed out above, planks are free and are perpetually soaked in nice fresh PNW rain water most of the year

today's plank is tomorrow's kindling

Was at a BBQ once and on a dare the host cooked 1 salmon on the grill and the other wrapped in plastic with the same spices and put in the dishwasher, plastic removed and wrapped in foil for the drying cycle, you couln't tell the difference between the 2 - yes we'd been drinking but not that much, both were top notch BTW

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The salmon is topped with bread crumbs, dill, cayenne, butter, garlic, whirled up in the food processor. Baked, broiled. The green stuff is asparagus purée with mirin, kinda sweet. The asparagus and strawberries were rather tasteless, not great produce.

Made scalloped potatoes. You know, I've always thought of this dish as barely harder than boiling water. Turns out there are subtleties I didn't know. My first effort was too wet, and a little bland, not particularly creamy. Any tricks or tips?

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What was the recipe you used?

JR

Here's what I do:

mix heavy cream, nutmeg, garlic, S+P, shredded gruyere. slice potatoes and bathe in the cream. transfer to baking dish. cover with rest of cream. baked at 350 covered in foil, poke several holes. when cream has reduced, cover potatoes with sliced gruyere and throw it under the broiler to brown.

JR, I put some milk in the pan shown, then layered sliced potatoes with some sliced onions, s&p, topped w/ grated cheese, simmered on stovetop for awhile then baked at 350F and finally a bit of broiler.

Okay, first slice the potatoes with a mandolin, to get them the same thickness, maybe 1/8 inch. Bring some milk to a boil, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg and a bouquet garni. Add the potatoes and simmer until nearly done. Drain them, taking care not to break them into pieces. You may add some cream during the last half of the cooking process, or wait until later.

Get a glass baking dish, or gratin dish, and rub the inside with cut garlic, then butter. Layer the potatoes, seasoning each layer as you go with salt and pepper. You might sprinkle a little gruyere cheese on each layer. Use a good quality imported cheese, not the usual supermarket crap.

Try to pack the potatoes in very tightly, with small gaps. When done, add some cream and top with more cheese. If your gaps are too big, you'll need more cream and the dish will be too runny. The idea is to have the cream pretty well incorporated into the potates when done. Bake at 400, loosely covered. The last few minutes, broil the cheese on top to a golden brown, if you want. I usually don't want a crust, but that's up to you.

I'd omit the onions, for sure. If you want more of a garlic flavor, add a few pieces when boiling the potatoes.

Another variation is to slice the potatoes uber thin and bake them with alternating layers of goat cheese and cream, salt and pepper. In this case, you want maybe 20 to 30 layers of potatoes, laid very carefully into a baking dish. Using the right goat cheese is important. You don't want a strong one. Do it right and it will be the best potato dish you'll ever eat. Do it wrong and you'll feed it to the dogs.

JR

BABY BACK RIBS! Low and slow covered in bacon. Will smoke for approx 3 hours on the big green egg. Any questions?

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Approx 1 hour into the process. Wrapped in foil are Vidalia sweet onions cored and stuffed with a beef bullion cube, butter and pepper and garlic (they taste like french onion soup when done).

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