Snowball Salmon

I went to Tag'z Five Star Meats (see previous blog titled Tag'z) and got some wild salmon. I always go for wild salmon rather than farm raised, because it just tastes better, and it has all natural nutrients and color. I soaked a cedar plank for about two hours in anticipation of making Bobby Flay's Grilled Salmon with Green Olive Relish (page 190 of Grill It!). The relish was easy to make. I just chopped up the green olives and let them sit in a bowl with garlic, and olive oil. Later I added thyme and parsley. I used only fresh ground black pepper and Kosher salt on the salmon. On one of his TV shows, Bobby was once asked if he was stranded on a desert island and could have only one spice to use, what would it be? He said fresh ground pepper because pepper brings flavor, but also can make a crust on just about anything. Bobby Flay is big on crust. If you look, many of his recipes have a crust on the outside that protects a tender inside of just about anything - steak, chicken and in this case salmon. I put the cedar plank on the fire and let it start to heat up and smolder. When it started popping, I turned the plank over and laid the salmon, skin side down, right on the hot wood. Usually I try to soak the plank up to two hours, but I didn't have that much time so the wood was underwater only about two hours. Because of this, soon enough, one of the plank corners caught on fire. You don't want fire, you want smoke, so usually I have a container of water nearby in case of flare ups. This time the water in the container was frozen, so I had to think fast. My outside prep table is still covered in snow from last week's storm, so I scooped up some snow, gathered it into a ball and placed it on the back of the cedar plank. This put out the flame on the corner of the plank, but then it did more. As the snowball melted, the water and the char of the plank produced even more smoke. I shut the grill cover and it became a snowball fed smoker. In the end the salmon had great smoky taste and the snowball was a good trick - but one I won't be able to use next summer.


What was on? Never Die Young by James Taylor. Somehow James Taylor's relaxed music and the courtyard just go together. He gets more play during grilling than anyone else because of this fact. And for the first time in a week, I played the music on my old outside CD player. I discovered that it just doesn't play when the temperature is below 32 degrees. Its sort of a music thermometer now. I always seem to take notice of 32 degrees. I am always aware if the temp is above or below freezing. It is a pilot's occupational habit. Aircraft passengers worry about turbulence, and mechanical failures but don't think about the temperature. Pilots don't worry at all about turbulence and can't do much in advance of a failure, but we do worry about ice. We don't worry about snow - snow is already frozen so it just bounces off your airplane, but freezing rain, forming ice, now that's a problem. Ice is a challenge between a pilot's resourcefulness and the power of nature. When you fly in ice, you get the sense that you are trespassing in mother nature's sky. Usually the ice will only be in a narrow band of altitude so you have two choices - up or down. Going up into the colder air means the precipitation will already be frozen and won't grab your airplane. Going down means using the outside temperature gauge (thermometer) as your altimeter. In other words, we fly just lower than where 32 degrees is located and we really study 32 along the way. Unless, of course the ground gets in the way, then up is the only choice. So now, even when I on the ground, even when a CD won't play below 32, I start forming a strategy to avoid 32. Its just an occupational habit.


What to Drink? Old Vine Zinfandel from Bogle Vineyards. I know, this is red wine with fish - but you can't get hung up on any rules. White wine and fish do go together, but so does peppery salmon with olive relish and a deep fruity Zin. In fact it was perfect. You know that the wine maker is taking great care with Old Vine Zin because sometimes those vines are 80 and 100 years old. They have been in the family since their grandparents brought them from their home country and planted them here. Wine makers, vintners, watch for 32 degrees like pilots. We have an internal thermometer in our heads, we just know when 32 is close. Some vintners protect the grapes from 32, others make Ice Wine. Ice Wine is a sweet dessert wine made from grapes that were allowed to freeze on the vine. The water inside the grape freezes, but the sugars do not, so when the grape is pressed only the concentrated sugar comes out. For this reason you don't get much wine from a single grape, but what you do get is syrupy sweet. When you taste it, you know somebody was watching for 32.


Even if the old CD player won't play, the grilling continues - but I'm still watching for 32.
Paul