a lemon-butter cream sauce.
Soak planks for at least 2 hours.
Just prior to cooking, lightly oil (olive) the side of the plank that the fish will be on.
Place plank on the grill indirect and let it
warm up.
Now it's time to prepare the salmon. If you
are not removing the skin, place it skin-side down.
Sprinkle on just a bitof lemon zest, salt and pepper.Put a layer of good honey dijon mustard on the top of the fish.
Take a can of French's Fried Onions, and pour into
a bag....LIGHTLY crush the onions with the bottom
of a pan.
Now add the crushed onions to the top of the salmon..it will stick to the mustard.
I then cook directly over the coals for 5 to 10
minutes to let the plank get a chance to start
smoking. Then I move to indirect and let the
plank flavor the fish as it cooks. Use a fork
to test when the fish flakes...it's done. You can
easily overcook salmon and dry it out...depends
on your tastes for doneness to say when it is done.
Depending on how hot your grill is, total cooking time can be somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes.
Preparing the sauce. This is a classic buerre blanc sauce with a little twist.
You'll need
White white ( I used a Sauvignon Blanc), shallot, heavy (whipping) cream, unsalted butter, salt, white pepper, a fresh lemon, fresh dill, maple
syrup, brown sugar.
Mince the shallot. Add to a sauce pan with the
wine and vinegar. Reduce the wine and vinegar.
Add the heavy cream, maple syrup
and brown sugar. Whisk to combine.
Now whisk in a small piece of cold butter, and
keep adding small pieces until done. Now add
the lemon juice, and mix well. Don't
over whip the sauce.
This sauce must be kept warm until serving..otherwise it will break down.
Pour this over the salmon when there's
about 5 minutes of cooking time left.
I screwed up the sauce (wasn't cooking in my kitchen), too much
cream and it didn't firm up, but tasted great.
The smokey salmon, the crunch of the onions, the lemon butter flavors
with a hint of sweetness and dill....Fabulous.
Thanks to K Kruger and Jim Minion for help developing this recipe.
