I've been planning to try salmon this way for a long time but just never got around to it until today. Oh Mmy, what was I waiting for? The results were so delectable, so juicy, so amazingly tender that my family fell to the ground and worshiped my genius for the entire dinner hour.
Well, at least until I made them help me do dishes.
You don't need a BBQ to make this, just a piece of untreated cedar. Here in BC, you can get planks right in the seafood section at the store. Make sure to soak them overnight. I like to fill up my kitchen sink and then set the planks in, along with a 28 oz can or two to weigh them down.
To make the salmon above you will need:
A nice sized fillet of salmon per person (no skin)
a lemon
fresh rosemary, minced
1-2 garlic cloves per salmon fillet, peeled and sliced into chips
olive oil
salt and pepper
thinly sliced red onion
1 untreated cedar plank
Soak the cedar plank in water for at least 4-5 hours. In the morning you just pop it in the sink, weigh it down with a heavy can to keep it submerged, and off you go about your day. I came home from work and it was ready to go.
Pre-heat your oven to 400 F and when it's ready, stick that plank in and let it heat up for about 10 minutes. Then you take it out and brush one side with olive oil. Oven! That's right! You don't really need a BBQ, you CAN do it in your oven too.
Place the salmon on the plank and top with garlic, onion, rosemary, salt, pepper, a squirt of lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Place the whole thing in the oven and let it roast for about 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Mine actually took more like 20 minutes.
Your plank may smoke slightly, but it was nothing that my fan didn't take care of.
And ohhhhh it was so worth it. I think the picture says it ALL.
