Spiced Cedar Plank Salmon

We have had cedar planks for grilling in our cabinet for years.  Still brand new, never been used.  Seemed like it was time to pull them out and give them a go.  They even had a recipe on the back, which is super convenient because I had no idea what seasonings to try since I've never grilled with a cedar plank before!  This turned out so good, one of my new favorite salmon recipes to make at home.  Finishing with the honey is what really made this salmon so good.  Wasn't too spicy for the kids either!

Rub
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Salmon
4-6 ounce salmon filets
1 Fire & Flavor Cedar Grilling Plank, soaked for seveal hours
Honey for drizzling

First
Preheat grill to medium-low heat, about 350 F

Next
In a small mixing bowl, combine rub ingredients. Rub salmon with desired amount of rub and set aside.

Last
Place soaked plank on preheated grill, close lid, and heat for 3 minutes. Using tongs, turn plank over and place salmon on heated side of plank. Close lid and grill for 12-15 minutes or until desired doneness. Remove cedar planked salmon from grill and drizzle with desired amount of honey. Serve immediately.  

Enjoy!

Asian Grilled Salmon

I had this salmon at a friends house last summer.  It is now my favorite way to make salmon at home.  The recipe is from Ina Garten on Food Network.  It's super easy but very flavorful.  I could never figure out why I couldn't get salmon at home to taste as good as salmon in restaurants.  Well, this recipe taught me that I've been over cooking salmon.  Way over cooking it!  :)

Ingredients:
3 pounds salmon, skin on, cut into 4 pieces
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 Tablespoons soy sauce (use gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos as a soy substitute)
6 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp minced garlic

Directions:
Light grill.  Brush grilling rack with olive oil to prevent salmon from sticking.

Whisk together mustard, soy sauce, oil and garlic.  Drizzle half of the marinade on the salmon and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Now, as reading the original directions, they state to put the salmon skin side down on the grill.  I've always put it flesh side down to get the nice grill marks and never had problems doing it that way.   So that is the way I will write to do it in recipe. Feel free to do it as you wish!  :)

Place salmon flesh side down.  Grill for 4-5 minutes.  Turn carefully, not flip and grill for another 4-5 minutes.  The salmon will be slightly raw in the center.  Spoon reserved marinade over the top of salmon.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes, it will keep cooking as it sits.  Serve with rice and a salad.

Fish Tacos

I wanted tacos for dinner the other night but kind of wanted a little something different. I decided that maybe fish tacos would be interesting to try. I've only made them once before and those one's I fried. I found this recipe at Eat at Home and here she grilled the fish. I almost didn't make them because I thought they wouldn't be good unless they were fried. Well, I gave it a shot and they were really good! Jordan said he actually preferred them this way over being fried!

I made some changes because I forgot a few ingredients at the store. You can really change this recipe up to suit your tastes so play with it a bit!

Ingredients:

4-6 Tilapia fillets, thawed (I bought 4 for the two of us)
Old Bay seasoning
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tbs. lime juice
3 teaspoons of adobe sauce from chipotle peppers (I couldn't find this so I bought chipotle salsa instead)
Handful of chopped fresh cilantro (forgot this at the store but would add it next time)
Slaw mix (forgot this as well so I just used chopped lettuce but would try the slaw next time)
Corn tortillas
Cheddar cheese, shredded – if desired
Chopped tomatoes – if desired
Chopped avocado – if desired

Directions:

Sprinkle the fish with Old Bay seasoning. I also put on some lemon pepper as well. Next time I would probably season with some salt too. I cooked our fish in a skillet with olive oil but you could cook it on the grill or in the oven. The fish was done in 5-7 minutes on the skillet - it flakes easily with a fork when it's done.

For the sauce, stir the sour cream, cilantro, adobe sauce and lime juice together. Since I was using chipotle salsa I put in a few spoonfuls and tasted the sauce. I think I ended up putting about 5 spoonfuls of salsa in to get the taste I wanted.

Once the fish is cooked, cut it into pieces. Assemble the tacos by layering the fish, slaw or lettuce and sauce on warmed corn tortillas. We also added tomatoes, avocado & cheese. 4 fillets of tilapia made 8 tacos. We each had two that night and I had two for lunch over the next two days. I served this with a side salad.



Yummy, enjoy!!

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

We love eating fish but for some reason I don't make it that often. I just forget about it or try to buy it when it's on sale. Tilapia was on sale a few weeks ago and I remembered this recipe I had made a few years back. I found it on allrecipes.com and it's very simple and has great flavor. I bought 2 fillets that were about one pound total. Jordan thought because the fish was so light we should have had 2 additional fillets so keep that in mind if you make this. If you go with 4 fillets just double the rest of your ingredients.

Serves 2 people
Ingredients:
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1 pound tilapia fillets

Directions:
Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil. In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, butter, mayonnaise and lemon juice. Season with dried basil, pepper, onion powder and celery salt. Mix well and set aside.

Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. I seasoned the fillets with some Old Bay seasoning as well.



Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. The fillet on the left has the cheese mixture added.



Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.



I served with steamed carrots and rice. Enjoy!

Salmon Steaks

Harris Teeter had salmon steaks on sale so I thought we'd give them a try. Normally we just buy salmon fillets but I'm a sucker for a sale! The salmon steaks we bought had the skins on and were wrapped in some sort of netting. You leave it on while it bakes - then I removed the netting and the skin before eating.

This recipe is simple simple simple - and really very good. I found it on allrecipes.com and the only thing I left out was the green onions as I didn't have any.

INGREDIENTS
2 (8 ounce) salmon steaks
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 green onion, sliced
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning

DIRECTIONS
Place salmon in a lightly greased 8-in. square baking dish. Top with butter and lemon juice. Combine onion, parsley, garlic salt and lemon pepper; sprinkle over salmon.



Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.



I didn't like the look of the skin and I always take it off and leave it on my plate so I just removed it before serving.



Looks much better!