Monday with Salmon

Let’s start with some emails I have received. No one wants to respond on the blog, they just email me privately. A lot of you seem to think I spend hours planning meals. Today is an example of spontaneous. I had half a head of red cabbage in the refrigerator. I had frozen salmon in the outdoor refrigerator. I also had the left over potato salad. I started with the coleslaw as I did not want to go to the grocery store. I found this recipe in the Blue Ribbon Cookbook.
Coleslaw makes 5 cups
½ head of cabbage, shredded, mine was red, but they recommend white
¼ C grated carrots
1T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1T caraway seeds
½ small yellow onion, roughly chopped
¼ C white vinegar
1 T mayonnaise, I used Greek yoghurt
1 ½ t kosher salt
1 ½ t sugar
¾ t freshly ground black pepper
½ C canola oil
1. In a large bowl, toss together the cabbage, carrot, parsley and caraway seeds. I grated it all in the food processor.
2. In the bowl of the food processor fitted with the blade attachment, pulse together the onion, vinegar, mayonnaise, salt, sugar and pepper until combined. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the canola oil until fully combined.
3. Scrape the vinaigrette into the cabbage mixture and toss well. Cover the coleslaw tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 1 hour and up to 3 days.
Mine was in the refrigerator for about 7 hours and was excellent. With this I also had the left over potato salad. Our main course was Salmon.

Cedar Planked Salmon
2T vegetable oil
3T whiskey
½ t minced ginger
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1T soy sauce
1T brown sugar
½ t lemon juice
First I get my cedar planks form Chinook Planks in Seattle. I have noticed of late they are in Wegman’s. Some go to the lumber yard, but I would worry about chemicals. Early in the day I place a plank in water with a T of sea salt. We were using a new one tonight as we burned the last one up. They said to heat up the grille to medium high and place the plank on the grille and carefully flip and toast each side a few times before adding the salmon. I marinated the salmon in the above mixture for 20 minutes. Jim after flipping the plank for a few times, closed the lid and when the plank began to smoke added the salmon. Close the lid and let hot-smoke for 8-10 minutes. When he brought the salmon in it was the most wonderful smell. It tasted as good as it smelled. It was perfectly done and moist.
I was afraid the meal would be too pink and purple, but it looked good and tasted wonderful. Jim served a Viansa 2009 Gionaccia which is a blend of their four whites, pinot Grigio, Arneis, Chardonnay and Vernaccia. It was wonderful.