Tonight's Dinner PET

[Mikey]

We usually eat pretty well around here on Saturday night. Saturday morning is my weekly trip to the Farmer's Market in Vista and then to Costco, which is just around the corner from the courthouse parking lot where they have the weekly Farmer's Market.

This one was pretty simple, but everything was really good...

"Fresh" Canadian king salmon from Costco. I used the quotation marks just in case Dins shows up.




Starting the grill




Sweet corn, picked this morning in Oceanside, CA




Tomatoes from Carlsbad, CA




Mozzarella di Bufala Campana, from Campania, Italy




The finished meal: Grilled salmon, sweet corn on the cob, caprese salad with kalamata olives. Multi-grain bread from the Sadie Rose bakery in San Diego.
(the salad was swimming in EVOO before I started in on it.

[Carson]

Salmon is my next experiment in the smoker.

On a cedar board.

[Dinsdale]

Salmon is my next experiment in the smoker.

On a cedar board.

Not sure where the cedar PLANK thing came from (it's called a "plank" when you cook on it), but that's fairly new to me. I guess cedar is cheaper than alder these days, which is how I've always known the technique.

Regardless, don't confuse that wonderful cooking technique with "smoked salmon," which is a curing process unto itself.

And if yesterday wasn't all about tales of The One That Got Away, I might be doing a salmon PET myself, although I wouldn't be smoking a fresh-caught fish (although I might cook it very lightly (we have that luxury when we catch them that day, wouldn't recommend it for that nasty old stuff you guys get) in the ECB.

[R-Jack]

I have some alder planks I haven't tried yet. I've been debating using them on salmon or using them on a couple racks of ribs.

[Dinsdale]

I don't really see where a plank would do much for a smoker. The idea is to make the heat of a grill or fire indirect, and a smoker is mighty indirect.

BTW - My coworker and I cooked mussels right on the beach on the fire.

Absolutely fucking awful, but foraging for critters and wood and grubbing down has a certain caveman appeal. That particular beach wasn't conducive to finding the tasty critters (which it's actually quite difficult 'round these parts to find a beach that isn't rife with mirkable sea creatures... I hear harbor seal is good).

[R-Jack]

Using a plank on a smoker is highly redundant, hence the reason I still have the planks lying around.

[Dinsdale]

Great smoker wood -- toss them on the fire.