Here is a recipe that certainly will work outdoors on a grill but also worked quite well in the oven. I found these little 6 X 6 inch or so cedar grilling planks at Sur la Table for $10 and impulse-bought them. Then I on-purpose bought some salmon.

I soaked my plank for about an hour and a half. If it was going on a charcoal grill the fish *, I would have soaked it for at least two hours. I let the plank heat up in the oven for about 5 minutes, before placing the salmon on it. I don’t actually know how much flavor the cedar imparted on the salmon, but wow, did it smell good while in the oven. These planks were officially, single serving size but I found I could easily fit the two pieces of salmon on it.

Also, since my plank was not too charred, I rinsed it off with hot water (no soap) and plan on using it again.

Oh and I can not stress enough how good the maple-mustard-rosemary crust on the salmon was…really, I can’t. I just can’t at all. Nope, not even going to try. And, if you didn’t have a cedar plank, I would still recommended making this recipe just on a baking sheet.

Cedar-Plank Salmon
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, via Deerholme Farm, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
1 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
1 tsp minced rosemary
1/2 tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 lb salmon fillet, cut into two pieces
Special Equipment: a cedar grilling plank

Soak cedar grilling plank in water to cover 1-2 hours, keeping it immersed.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Stir together mustard, honey, rosemary, zest.

Salt and pepper fish first and then spread mixture on flesh side of salmon and let stand at room temperature 15 minutes.

Set plank in the oven for about 5 minutes. Remove and put salmon on plank, skin side down (if salmon is too wide for plank, fold in thinner side to fit). I put my plank on a baking sheet to avoid any oven messes.

Cook until salmon is just almost cooked through, 12 - 14 minutes. Turn on the broiler and let the top get a little golden and form a crust, about 1-2 minutes. Let salmon stand on plank 5 minutes before serving.

We had the salmon with some oven roasted sweet potatoes and green beans.

Awesome quick green beans - trim, rinse and saute for a couple of minutes in some olive oil. Salt and pepper lightly and add about a couple of tablespoons chicken broth. Lower heat, cover and cook about 15 minutes. Remove lid, turn up heat and let broth evaporate. So good!

* To cook the salmon on a grill: Prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium-high heat for gas). Open vents on bottom and lid of charcoal grill.
Grill, covered with lid, 13-15 minutes.

This is a meal inspired by a dinner that jwa had at his parents house a little while ago. He had gone down there to help them with some things and returned with tales of steak with garlic in it. Mmmmm…garlic in steak. I was intrigued. Such a great idea!

So, we grilled some up, with the addition of chimichurri sauce and some grilled veggies.

This was also a great opportunity to use out new outdoor grill — I still love it!

For the Argentinian Chimichurri Sauce:
Adapted from a recipe from Bob Blumer, The Surreal Gourmet
1/2 cup lightly packed chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
3 to 5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp chili pepper flakes
2 tbsp shallot or onion, minced
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp sherry wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Steak:
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp kosher salt
2 1/2 pounds rib-eye, New York strip, or sirloin steak, 1 1/2 inches thick
3 cloves of garlic, cut into slivers

Preheat your grill. You could also do this inside on a grill pan. If you cook on a grill pan, omit the salted water/cayenne mixture. Just salt the steak before cooking.

Place all chimichurri sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until well chopped, but not pureed. Reserve.

Dissolve cayenne pepper and salt in 1 cup hot water. Transfer to a squeeze container (or transfer to a bowl and use a basting brush.

Using a small knife, make slits in each steak and push the garlic slivers into the slits. Brush a little olive oil on the steaks.

Place the steak directly over a hot grill (oil the rack first), and cook for 6-7 minutes per side for medium rare. Baste 1-2 times with the salt/cayenne mixture. This will also help keep flare-ups under control. (But you’ll still get a nice crust).

When you turn the steak, that’s a good time to add your veggies. We did bell pepper, zucchini and portobello mushrooms.

Spoon chimichurri sauce over steak. Serve with the grilled veggies and baguette.

It’s really good!

And if you are really lucky, there will be some leftovers to put on a baguette from Little T’s and make a steak sandwich!

Be sure to slather a little chimichurri on there and perhaps even some horseradish mayo!

This was a side dish that worked really well with some grilled albacore tuna steaks. For the fish, I made a quick topping of kalamata olives, green olives, cherry tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, lemon juice and feta cheese. So, it was a Mediterranean kind of a thing (one of my favorite kinds of things).

The zucchini grilled while the fish rested. I think the scores in the zucchini are to let the buttery goodness soak in. This recipe is easily halved or even quartered. I did the later with 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp lemon, 1/4 tsp each of the spices and a pinch of curry. Oh and yes — there was cheese!

Grilled Zucchini with Garlic and Lemon Butter Baste
recipe adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
8 medium zucchini (about 2 1/2 pounds), trimmed, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp powder
grated Parmesan cheese (optional? no, not really…)

Preheat barbecue (medium heat). Alternately, heat up a grill pan over medium-high heat. Score cut side of zucchini halves diagonally about 1/4 inch deep at 1-inch intervals.

Melt butter with lemon juice, lemon-pepper seasoning, garlic powder, oregano, and curry powder. Do this either in a small pan or a microwave-safe bowl.

Brush seasoned butter on cut side of zucchini. Season with a little salt.

Place zucchini on grill and cook until charred on all sides and just beginning to soften, about 10-12 minutes.

Transfer zucchini to platter and sprinkle with the cheese.

***

Last Weekend’s Random food around Portland:

Latte at Albina Press on Hawthorne

Last weekend we saw Cinematic Titanic (most of the MST3k people) and it was so funny. Such as — Convoluted Man!!!

Okay, back to the food. Before hand, we hit Veritable Quandary for dinner. Excellent choice — we need to go there more often.

Awesome salad at Veritable Quandary. Specifically: Poached Egg, Smoked Bacon & Butter Lettuce on Crispy Cornbread, with Pickled Onions and Buttermilk, Chive & White Cheddar Dressing.

jwa’s meal: Crispy Trout with Toasted Pecan Butter, Dungeness Crab, Sweet Corn, Spinach & Scallions

My meal: Alaskan Halibut Cheeks, Creamy Quinoa, Local Asparagus, Cipollini Onions & Pea Shoots

Memorial Day Weekend. Portland. Sunny. 70+ degrees. No rain. Really, no rain. What to do? Make lamb burgers!

Wow, these were good. Juicy and flavorful. The recipe is very easy to halve and make just two burgers (what I did). I found some kalamata ciabatta rolls at New Seasons which worked perfectly with these burgers.

Middle Eastern Lamb Burgers
Adapted from a recipe in Everyday with Rachael Ray
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (you could sub flat-leaf parsley)
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup low fat, plain yogurt, mixed with 1 clove crushed garlic and 1/2 a grated English cucumber
4 crusty kalamata olive rolls, split
spinach leaves
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 tomato, sliced

In a large bowl, combine the lamb, cilantro, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Form into 4 patties.

In a grill pan, set over medium-high heat, toast the rolls, set aside. In the same pan, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil and brush it onto the pan’s surface.

Add the burgers and cook, turning once, for 5 minutes each side for medium-rare.

After the first side cooks, add some feta to each burger top. Slather each roll top with the yogurt and stack some spinach leaves and tomato slices on the other side of the roll.

When the burgers are done, place each on top of the tomato slices, place the top roll in place and nom-nom-nom!

On the side we had a salad with 1 cup cooked lima beans, some halved cherry tomatoes, diced red onion, kalamata olives, fresh oregano leaves and crumbled feta. The dressing was some red wine vinegar, lemon zest, crushed garlic and olive oil. Delicious!

My new goal is to post at least once a week. So sad. I was trying to figure out this morning why it is I’ve gotten lazy. Okay, one, because I’m kind of lazy. But also, (this would be point two) after having this blog for three (!!) years, most of the stuff I make around the house is not new. They are recipes that I’ve made and posted about before. There. I feel better now.

This is a great Summer meal. You could eat it all room temperature if it’s really hot or just have the sauce a little chilled. I used a little of my sauce as a quick marinade. I liked the way that worked as I also got grilled parsley and cilantro. Yes, cilantro. I added some of that to my chimichurri. If you don’t want to do that, just use all parsley!

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri
Adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp hot red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 (6- to 8-oz) halibut fillets

Whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil, lemon juice, water, garlic, shallot, red-pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper until salt has dissolved. Stir in parsley and cilantro. Let chimichurri stand 20 minutes.

Alternately, you can also do this in a food processor. That’s what I did as I wanted a finer consistency to my herbs and I was not really wanting to chop them finely.

Meanwhile, prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas). Or, set your trusty grill pan over medium high heat.

Now, I took about 1/4 of my chimichurri sauce and spread it over the halibut before cooking. I let it sit for about 10 minutes. If you don’t do this, brush a little extra olive oil on the fish and give it some salt and pepper before cooking.

Oil grill rack, then grill fish, covered only if using a gas grill, turning once, until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. In my grill pan, I found about 5 minutes per side on medium to medium-high was good.

Serve fish drizzled with some of chimichurri; serve remainder on the side. Also on the side here is some whole wheat couscous and chopped cherry tomatoes.