Salmon Supper

Our Daughter E is married to C, a pilot. About two weeks ago C and some of his pilot buddies hopped on a plane and took a much-needed vacation to Alaska for a fishing trip. They spent a few days standing in waders in icy-cold waters, and they caught the most beautiful Alaskan salmon I have ever seen. Being well-prepared for their adventure, they filleted the fish, vacuum sealed it in bags, and packed it on ice--all within hours of their catch.

After he returned from his trip, C and Daughter E invited my husband Randalf and me to their home for Father's Day dinner. (We loved spending time with our two granddaughters that day. Watch for another post about them.) For dinner, C cooked up two marvelous salmon dishes: a scrumptious stir-fry (which included rice, little bits of salmon, egg, peas, and a savory sauce) and tender-flaky broiled salmon with a light glaze (I'm not exactly sure what was in the glaze, but I remember it included real maple syrup). So amazingly good! We will be talking about it for years to come.

As we were getting ready to go home, Randalf received a big, beautiful salmon fillet from C:

It was the perfect gift for a man who loves to work creatively with food. 

Here's the first of many posts on how my husband Randalf knows more than a little bit about how to take the finest ingredients and make them into something even finer.

First, Randalf soaked two cedar planks in water for a few hours. While they were soaking, he made this sauce--rich with sesame oil and sesame seeds:

Then he lit the outside grill, cut the fillet in two pieces, and placed the salmon on planks over the hot coals.

 

Next he covered the salmon in the sesame sauce:

After a while the cedar planks got really hot and smoky, giving the salmon the desired smoke flavor. . . . Perhaps the planks got a little too smoky:

Usually, Randalf would have squirted the flaming plank with a gentle mist of water. However, there was no squirt bottle ready, so he quenched the fire with a pitcher of water.

(I tend to avoid fire at all costs--I don't even like lighting birthday candles, and the neighborhood fireworks on July 4th can be traumatic for me--so I was really glad to see that pitcher come out.)

After all of that, here was the result:

C and Daughter E had sent us home with the leftover salmon-rice stir fry, so I heated that up:

(This photo does not let you see or smell how truly yummy this rice dish was.)

And then we served the grilled salmon and rice with a green salad and fruit:

The salmon was so amazingly meaty and flaky, and the sesame sauce was perfect with the salmon:

It is a rare treat to eat salmon that's this fresh (especially when you live in the high-mountain desert like we do). 

So the next time you take a trip to Alaska, and catch enough fish to share, and feel like setting a plank of wood on fire, come on down to our house. I know a guy who will be happy to help.

(And thank you again to C for sharing a piece of his precious catch with us!)