July 4th Menu

For the 4th this year the menu included cedar plank salmon with grilled corn/mango salsa, sous vide potato salad, grilled asparagus and grilled corn.

The only salmon I had access to was pre-portioned, frozen the individually vacuum packed.  I placed the packets in a 125f water bath for about 45 minutes to thaw and get up to temperature, next time I'll probably go a little lower (like 115f-120f).  The salmon was then put in the refrigerator until time to grill.  I placed the salmon fillets skin side down on a soaked cedar plank, spread some honey Dijon mustard on the top, sprinkled with lemon pepper and topped with a slice of fresh lemon.  The grill was set up with a standard two level fire, the plank was put over the hot side until it started to smolder, then moved to the cool side.  Since the salmon was already cooked I just needed to let it heat through and absorb some of the grill flavor.  Once done I topped with a grilled corn/mango salsa consisting of some previously grilled corn, diced mango, diced red onion, diced hot red pepper, cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper and olive oil.

The potatoes for the potato salad were cut in to pieces, tossed with salt, pepper and champagne vinegar and vacuum bagged with a knob of butter.  They were cooked in a 185f bath for about 3 hours, I kind of got distracted and forgot about them for a bit so they were in the bath longer than intended but doneness turned out great.  They were chilled overnight and mixed with the dressing and other ingredients a few hours before serving.  The dressing consisted of mayonnaise, balsamic vinegar, champagne vinegar, celery salt, black pepper, chili/garlic paste, diced celery, thinly sliced radish and thinly sliced green onion (white and green parts) along with red pepper left over from the salsa.  I dumped the potatoes in the bowl where I had mixed the dressing and folded them in, next time I'll dirty another bowl so I can put in just enough dressing to coat the potatoes, these were a little over dressed.

The other sides were grilled asparagus (tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper before being grilled) and grilled corn (just soaked for a few hours before going on the heat to get a char).  Both turned out great.

Dessert was an apple pie from the Hoosier Momma Book Book of Pie cookbook, I picked it up a Costco last year when the author was signing copies.  Turned out great!  It was served with a vanilla/caramel gelato.

Cedar Plank Salmon

For our July 4th dinner I decided to make cedar plank salmon instead of the usual burgers of steaks.  The process is pretty easy.  First, we picked up some cedar planks at Dominick's since Costo had sold out.  The planks were soaked for about an hour during which time I trimmed the salmon to fit and pulled together the ingredients I would use.  Once the plank was well soaked I removed it from the water and patted dry.  A generious coating of extra virgin olive oil was applied, the a sprinkling of Mrs. Dash, a few grinds of salt and some sprigs of fresh dill.  The salmon fillet was placed on top of the dill, then more Mrs. Dash, more salt, more sprigs of fresh dill, some very thin slices of lemon shingled on top and finally a squeeze of lemon.  The Weber kettle grill had been prepared with a full chimney of lit coals dumped on one side and spread out so they formed a uniform bed covering 1/2 of the bottom.  There were no coals on the other half.  The plank of salmon was first placed directly over the hot coals until I saw a bit of char on the sides of the plank, then it was moved over to the cool side.  The corn and other vegetables were grilled on the hot side until done, then a handful of soaked cherry wood chips were placed on the fire and the grill lid placed on so the salmon would finish cooking over indirect heat with a little smoke.  It took about 5-8 minutes for the salmon to just get to the point were the flesh was starting to flake.  The results were excellent, very moist salmon with loads of flavor.  It's important to keep a close eye on the fish and remove it just as the flesh will flake when a paring knife is inserted, leave it on too long and you get dry salmon.