Cedar Planked Salmon

Cedar planked salmon, pita, and cucumber salad

Cedar planked salmon is so easy and soooo good. It is moist and infused with a bit of a salmon flavor. We like our salmon with a semi-spicy rub (our daughter doesn't like food that is too spicy so we hold back when she is having salmon). We always have brown sugar as our base and always use kosher salt. The rub we use depends our mood. Tonight we are doing a middle eastern rub.



Cedar Plank

The first step is to soak the cedar plank in water for at least 20 minutes. We soak ours in the sink. Sometimes we buy untreated cedar and make our own cedar planks and sometimes we buy them. While the cedar plank is soaking you make the rub and like the coals (we are purists and do not use propane). While the cedar plank is soaking, unwrap the salmon so it can dry out and come to room temperature. The salmon will soak up more of the cedar plank goodness if it does not have a skin.

Salmon on a cedar plank

The Rub

Tonight's Rub

1/4 Cup (53 g) Packed Brown Sugar
2 Tsp Kosher Salt
1/4 Tsp of ground allspice
1/4 Tsp of ground turmeric
1/4 Tsp of coriander
1/4 Tsp of ground cinnamon
Cayenne to Taste (I use about 3-4 dashes)

Rub for the salmon

Jerk Rub

1/4 Cup (53 g) Packed Brown Sugar
2 Tbsp of Kosher Salt
1/4 Tsp of Ground Ginger
1/4 to 1/2 Tsp of Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp of Ground Allspice
Couple of Dashes of Red Pepper Flakes
1/4 Tsp of Paprika (either hot or sweet depending on taste)
1/8 Tsp of Thyme
1 Dash of Ground Cloves

Rubbed with the rub and ready for the grill

Grilling

Cedar planked salmon

Put the salmon on the cedar plank and rub the rib on the fish and put it on the grill. Cook until it easily flakes (we like ours rare and usually cook it for about 13 minutes). There is no need to flip the salmon. The cooking time depends on the thickness of the wood and the heat of the fire. We cook ours with the top closed on the grill.

Cucumber Salad

Cucumber salad

Since the salmon is a little spicy, I thought a sour cream/yogurt cucumber salad would be a nice foil to the spicy salmon.
For the salad combine: one cucumber (peeled and seeded- I usually peel the cucumber, cut it in quarters and scoop out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon), 1/2 cup (125 ml) of plain yogurt (Greek works best), 1/4 cup (61 g)sour cream, one clove of garlic minced, fresh mint chopped (to taste), and salt and pepper to taste. My family absolutely loves this and I can't seem to keep any in the house. I make it with low fat sour cream. Sometimes I add cayenne (because everything is better with cayenne).