Grilled Salmon With Sweet Bourbon Glaze

Hickory Smoked and Grilled Salmon with Sweet Bourbon Glaze

It seems glazed salmon is all the rage.  It’s been popping up in all the food mags with all sorts of variations.  I’ve seen fresh blueberry glaze, jam based glazes, honey combined with lots of different ingredients, to name a few.  I came up with a bourbon, butter and brown sugar glaze seasoned with soy sauce, ginger and a splash of orange juice.

To raise the wow factor a bit, I decided to try adding smoke to the grill.  I used hickory wood chips that I soaked in water for an hour.   I drained them and put them inside the smoker box that came with the grill.  You can use disposable foil baking pans if you don’t have a smoker box.  Just poke holes in the bottom of two pans.  Use one for the bottom and use the other as a lid.  This works great!

The fish was beautiful, smelled amazing and melted in our mouths.  It was so tender and flaky and a little bit rich with the butter in the glaze.  The hickory smoke complimented the bourbon glaze beautifully.  I paired the fish with a Jamaican style brown rice pilaf and roasted asparagus.  Yummmm!

We had a store bought peach pie that was so bad it is not worth mentioning.  I’m making homemade peach cobbler today to atone!

Recipes:

Grilled Salmon with Sweet Bourbon Glaze and Hickory Smoke

Jamaican Style Brown Rice Pilaf

Pork Rib Roast

Roasted Yellow Beet Salad with Walnut Oil Vinaigrette

I don’t usually begin my posts with a discussion of the salad, but this salad was so surprising I must begin here.  For quite some time I have been looking for a delicious way to serve beets.  I guess I really don’t like beets, I just like the idea of liking beets.  They have such fabulous color, whether red or yellow.  I buy them, I store them, I look at them, I store them and then I look at them some more.  I really don’t like beets.

So here I was again, having purchased beets, this time the yellow ones.  They had been in my fridge for two weeks (so I could stare at them for a goodly number of times).  I found this recipe for the beet salad at Melissa’s produce site.  I tweaked it a bit to suit myself.  I used champagne vinegar instead of balsamic and I added fresh tarragon.  It was so delicious, I couldn’t believe I was eating beets.  Even Mum, who we all know hates her vegetables, ate up every last bit.  The salad has roasted yellow beets, toasted pine nuts, shallots and feta cheese.  It is dressed in a shallot and walnut oil vinaigrette with fresh tarragon.  Wowee, it was really good!  You must try this recipe. It has a lot of ingredients, but that’s what must be done to beets to make them taste good.

Pork Rib Roast with Garlic and Rosemary

With the amazing beet salad, I served an impressive pork rib roast.  I thought I would try to make it exactly the way I made the lamb rib racks for my birthday.  I did the pork the same way, but added ten more minutes to the cooking time and they came out perfectly.  They were medium rare, and as tender and juicy as could be.  The rosemary and garlic added their usual intoxicating aromas to the gorgeous meal.

Plated Pork Roast with Parsley Potatoes

With all the complexity of the salad and the show-stopping rib roast, I decided I better keep the side dish simple.  So, I served very simple, yet elegant parsley new potatoes.  I quartered and boiled the potatoes until tender.  I drained them and added butter, fresh parsley and salt.  They were delicious.

Tipsy Plums and Raspberries

Fresh plums are in season and I am drawn to their beauty.  I found a great recipe in the August 2010 issue of Food and Wine magazine for “Tipsy Plums & Raspberries. The plums are sliced thin and soaked in Japanese Plum Wine with a dash of ground ginger.  After soaking for an hour or so and just before serving, fresh raspberries are added.  The raspberries fall apart if they soak for too long.  The recipe didn’t call for any sugar, but I sugared the raspberries before adding them.  The compote is served with a sprig of mint and ginger snap cookies on the side.  Really simple, really delicious.

It’s My Birthday Dinner

What is my favorite thing to do on my birthday?  Make myself dinner, of course!

Rack of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary

Birthday Menu:

♦Rack of  Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary

♦Potato Gratin with Parsley and Sage

♦Moroccan Glazed Carrots

♦Cucumber Raita with Mint

♦Triple Chocolate Cake

I decided to go all out for this meal.  It didn’t take me long to come up with rack of lamb.  I’ve never made rack of lamb before.  I don’t know why, because this recipe is so simple, so fool proof that I should have been making it for years.  Give it a try for some big WOW at your dinner table.

Potato Gratin with Parsley and Sage

I was thinking my famous rosemary scalloped potatoes would go nicely, but then I thought, “too much rosemary”.  A little rosemary goes a long way.  So, I decided to mix it up a bit.  I made the same scalloped potatoes, but this time with parsley and sage.  I changed up the cheese as well.  Instead of using cheddar, I used Gruyere (fancy french cheese that melts fantasticly and tastes a little like swiss cheese) and Fontina (another great melting cheese).  They smelled fantastic and the taste was simply divine.  Give these a try, or try your own cheese and herb combination.

Moroccan Glazed Carrots

Now, I needed something red on the plate but I was tired of tomatoes.  I came up with Julia’s (Child) Glazed Carrots.  But I was brave and changed up her recipe a bit.  I know, can you believe I would do such a thing?  I used brown sugar instead of white and I added a pinch of Garam Masala to give it that Moroccan taste.  They were amazing!

Cucumber Raita with Fresh Mint

With all these rich dishes, I decided I needed something light and acidic.  The eastern Indians use raitas to cleanse the palate of heavy or spicy foods.  So I made a cucumber and mint raita.  I added a bit of diced red onion as well.  The dish should be made with a yogurt dressing.  I didn’t have any, so I punted with sour cream that I mellowed with a bit of half and half.  I added lemon juice and a splash of rice vinegar along with a teaspoon of sugar.  It did the job and was very pretty as well.

I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the birthday cake, but so sad, too bad, can’t bring it back.  I bought it at Doris’ Italian Market, swoon…..  It was a triple chocolate cake, meaning; chocolate cake with chocolate pudding and chocolate ganache.  I thought I was going to faint from sugar shock, but it was out of this world delicious.  I didn’t pass out so I had another piece for breakfast the next day.

Grilled Boneless Pork Chops

Grilled Boneless Pork Chops with Shiitake Mushroom Sauce, served with Grilled Leeks and Endive with Broiled Tomato Mozzarella

Beautiful center-cut boneless pork chops were on sale this week.  I marinated them, grilled them and served them with leeks, shallots and endive done on the grill in a foil packet.  I also served thick slices of tomato with fresh mozzarella done under the broiler.

For the marinade, I used a shallot vinaigrette.  Then, I sauteed shiitake mushrooms in a little olive oil.  I like to use my marinades as a finishing sauce.  I know lots of chefs say to discard the marinade.  As long as you bring the marinade to a boil, you are not in any danger of poisoning yourself.  So, I used the shallot vinaigrette marinade.  I brought it to a boil and then cooked it until it had reduced to a nice thickness.  I added the sauteed mushrooms and dressed the grilled pork chops with the sauce.  It was delicious.

Building the Packet of Grilled Leeks, Shallots and Endive with Lemon

For the grilled vegetables, I used the foil packet method.  I use the extra wide foil so you can make a bigger packet.  I doubled it over to make it stronger.  I piled up leeks, shallots, and endive that I had cut in half.  I drizzled a little olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  I squeezed a little fresh lemon juice on the vegetables to give them a bright flavor.  I decided to include a few thin slices of lemon in the packet for show.  In retrospect, I would not do the lemon slices in the packet again.  They became bitter and caused the vegetables to be a little bitter.  Next time will garnish the grilled vegetables with the lemon slices after the vegetables have been cooked.  The dish is really gorgeous and smells fabulous.  Try it for a nice change of pace.

Chocolate Mousse

For dessert, I made a light and cool chocolate Mousse.  Mum loves dessert and she especially loves chocolate.  So this dessert was a big hit.  It is so simple to make.  Check out the recipe.

Whole Snapper, Stuffed and Grilled

I grilled a whole snapper and it was so gorgeous, I wanted to share the photo with you.  Unfortunately I can’t remember what the heck I stuffed it with.  I’m a bit behind on getting my posts up, and my memory seems to have failed me here.  The pictures don’t really reveal what is inside the little bugger either.  I suppose a nice crab or chopped shrimp stuffing with butter, garlic and breadcrumbs would be delicious.  I know I was strictly watching my carbs and calories, so I probably didn’t do a breadcrumb stuffing.  David thinks I stuffed it with multi colored bell peppers and onions.  I think that would be pretty to look at, but I think the buttery breadcrumb stuffing would taste way better.  So, suit yourselves.

Grilled Snapper with Mystery Stuffing

Make sure your fish monger takes all the scales off any whole fish you plan to cook.  The snapper had very big scales, and lots of them.  I stuffed the fish, tied it with kitchen twine.  I rubbed it with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.  I grilled on medium high for about 4 minutes a side.  My grill runs extremely hot, so you may want to grill it for a bit longer.  Better to err on the side of under cooking.  I served the fish with a tossed salad that included green olives and feta cheese.

If I stuffed it with peppers and onions, I think they would have been previously grilled (I prepare grilled peppers and onions frequently).  They wouldn’t cook as quickly as the fish would.  So, I probably had some left overs from the previous day and used them as a stuffing.  If only I could find a few of those missing brain cells.  Be brave and come up with your own stuffing.