Sunday, July 24, 2011

Paley's Salmon


I am really starting to miss my kitchen.  The drywall is up but waiting for the taping and painting and then cabinets.  We have been enjoying all the local fare but ready to start cooking in our new space.  We had an amazing dinner at the Italia Trattoria last night and this morning breakfast will be served to us by Kate and Shane.  I find cooking to be such a creative process and I miss that connection. 

Here is my favorite way to prepare salmon.  I made this pre kitchen demo and I suppose we could prepare it again in our pseudo kitchen (aka spare bedroom) but the clean up is a big hassle.  Anyways, make sure and start with a good piece of fish.  On a recent fishing trip, my husband caught this beautiful mackinaw at Priest Lake so I made the recipe with mackinaw and was also delicious. The mackinaw worked well but salmon is still the bomb!

This recipe is from the Paley's Restaurant, in Portland OR, cookbook.  We dined there with our good friends and traveling buddies and they were kind enough to buy me a copy of the cookbook.  If you are a cookbook fan and love good food, this one is for you.  We bought cedar planks especially for cooking but according to the official recipe, you can use cedar shakes.  Here is a few pictures of the process along the way and here is a link to a copy of the original recipe.  Click Here

Sweet Walla Walla onions , basil and a whole head of chopped garlic

Cedar planks brushed with olive oil then topped with chopped garlic

Mackinaw marinated in orange rind, brown sugar and kosher salt placed on top of garlic

Fish is covered with onions and basil and topped with a little olive oil and put on a hot barbecue.  I'm a big fan of the charcoal Weber but the gas grill works great.  The planks catch fire but the onions protect the fish and the garlic permeates!!!

The finished product

Served with grilled asparagus and lemon vermicelli

Here's the lemon pasta recipe again.  Enjoy!  I think any type of fish could be good.  Thinking about a vegan version and may try it some night with tempeh or seitan  for the vegan kids! 

Lemon Pasta

In a large bowl add the zest and juice of 3-4 lemons, about 1/2 cup of good olive oil, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 3-4 scallions thinly sliced, 1/2 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley (the only kind to use) and a pinch of sugar to mellow some of the tartness and a few shakes of salt.  (You can add more salt later after you add cheese).  Let set on the counter for 3-4 hours.  Cook your desired pasta, I like vermicelli or linguine, but any pasta that isn't too hearty will do.  Drain with al dente and toss in lemon mixture.  Add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan Reggianio.  Add additional oil and salt and pepper to taste and serve.

2 comments:

  1. for some reason this reminds me of your dad, maybe invoke memories of smoked smelt?!

    ReplyDelete