The Maiden Voyage

Ok, so I was really stoked when I got the grill. More than stoked. I was ecstatic. July was over so I felt like a lot of the summer had been wasted with no grilling. Boo. So I still had a small problem. I love me some charcoal grilled salmon. A friend of mine recommended trying a cedar plank. Problem solved. Not the same thing, but a decent alternative. So I've got my cedar and I've got my coho, and I've got what sounds like a good recipe. I put my plank in water before I left for work so it would be nice and saturated for cooking.


Things I already know for BBQing:
be safe: keep anything flammable - fire outside the grill is bad
Use hot pads and metal cooking utensils (or silicon) - plastic melts kids
Wash anything that raw meat has touched-meat juice carries bad bacteria 
be prepared - have everything ready before you put anything on the grill because you gotta be attentive to the food.

So I was ready. I seasoned the fish, had my cedar plank soaked, the basting sauce was ready.
Time to fire up the grill! Push of a button and we're off. (I followed all the directions for turning on the grill the first time, no worries)

So, I put the plank on the grill, put the salmon on the plank and closed the lid. Woo! The recipe said the grill should be around 350 degrees. The grill thermometer looked a little low so I turned up the flame a little bit. BIIIIIIIIG MISTAKE! A couple minuted later there was smoke. Not steam. Smoke. I opened up the lid. Oh look, my plank is on fire! And not just a little bit on the corners, it was on FIRE!.

I didn't panic. First i turned off the grill. Ok, so it totally sucks that to turn off the grill you have to the turn the nob toward high to get to the off position. Nice to fuel the fire, literally. Then I blew on it. Yeah, that didn't work so much. Close the lid and contain the fire. Maybe the CO2 (that's right, I am getting sciencey) will put it out. Stupid vents!So I turned to my boyfriend. "Uh honey, the wood is on fire, what do I do? Should I pour water on it?"  Crap! I don't want to ruin the fish, but the cedar is on fire so that could ruin it too. Poop. Ok, get some water. Open the lid. Yup, still on fire. Pour slowly, avoid the salmon at all costs. Drip, drip, one side out! Sweet! Small trickle, other side out! Sweet! That's all I needed to put out the fire? Awesome! The fish still looks ok...but not cooked. Damn!

Luckily none of the neighbors say the fire, so the grill hasn't been confiscated! ;)

So, I took the plank off, oiled the grill, turned it back on, and threw the fish on. Ok, so I need to interrupt the story here and say that by this time it was dark. I got started a little late. I thought I would be able to beat the sun, but I didn't, especially with the little fire incident. So I let the fish cook for what I thought would be a sufficient amount of time, scraped it off the grill (no joke. Thankfully only the skin was sacrificed.) and then took it inside. We gave it one look, still not cooked. Oh lord. My boyfriend just looked at me like, ok, what do you do now (that's right, he has no idea how to cook). Last resort. I crank up the toaster oven, put some foil on the baking sheet and throw the fish in. If this doesn't work nothing will, and I'm screwed. I pulled the 3-times cooked fish out 10 minuted later and...voila! Perfectly cooked. No really. It was nice a tender. Yay! Even better, it didn't taste like smoke, but it did taste like cedar. Nice!

So, my first time out using the gas grill, not so much successful, but dinner got cook, and I am not giving up, just taking notes. Here are my lessons learned:

My grill cooks hot.
When grilling on a plank keep the heat low and let it cook longer.
Maybe try putting foil on the ends of the plank to protect it.
May try getting a non-stick grill sheet when grilling directly on the grill (got one yesterday)
II am told putting salmon in foil packets helps seal in flavors, and keeps it from sticking to the grill (duh!), maybe I'll try that next time.
Basting sauce on salmon results in in added flavor. try marinating or the foil technique next time.

So the final results:
grilling = disaster
food = delicious (because can you really go wrong with salmon? I think not.)

Enjoy these pictures of the aftermath:

Charred cedar plank. There was fire here.

Yup, that salmon skin is really stuck on there. Nothing a little steel wool and elbow grease can't take care of.