Cedar Plank Salmon

Finite Cellars Wine pairing: 2024 Gemini Vineyard Pinot Noir

Recipe Origin: Vitaly Paley, Paley’s Place Cookbook

Scale of difficulty: Ben Special (6/10)

To quote Vitaly, “Salmon is Life”, and for generations this has been true in the Pacific Northwest. This grilled cedar plank salmon recipe is a staple menu item for Ben especially when we have family or friends over that we want to impress. At its heart, this dish is simple quality ingredients yielding complex flavors. With the cedar plank, caramelized onion, garlic, and fresh herbs, the salmon smells as good as it tastes. Quality of salmon is key and when we can find it, local wild King Salmon, or Chinook, is preferred. We agree with Vitaly when he says, “If there is a better way to cook salmon, I haven’t found it yet.” Our freezer is almost always stocked with salmon, be it Chinook, Sockeye, Coho, or Steelhead because it pairs pretty with Pinot Noir.

We paired the salmon here with our Gemini Pinot Noir. The red fruit driven and delicate aromatics of this single vineyard enhance the flavor coming from the salmon marinade, the licoricey basil, and the sweet onion. The grilled burning cedar plank aromatics bring the whole dish together.

Ingredients:

2 lb piece of wild salmon (with skin) deboned
2 tbsp of fine sea salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
Grated zest of 2 oranges
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil
1 small bulb of garlic finely chopped
1 Walla Walla, or equivalent, sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup packed coarsely chopped fresh basil

Recipe:

1: Marinate the salmon for 2 hours in the salt, brown sugar, and orange zest (seasoned on both sides)
2: Preheat grill on high
3: Rub both sides of a cedar plank with 3 tbsps of olive oil
4: Spread chopped garlic evenly under the salmon and cover in chopped basil and onion slices and drizzle with remaining oil (the onion is here to protect the salmon from burning and help tell a perfect medium-rare doneness)
5: Allow the plank to ignite then close the grill for about 15 minutes
6: Remove from grill and serve immediately

Serve with grilled asparagus, miso rice and a glass of Finite Cellar’s Gemini Vineyard Pinot Noir.