CEDAR PLANKED SALMON

MARY JANE MAFFINI

 

I can still remember the first time I tasted cedar-planked salmon (in Nova Scotia) and what a wonderful experience that was.  In the years since, it’s become a summer favorite with various marinades (or even plain!), but this is the one we like best.  It’s very easy and always a hit. We associate it with meals outside with friends or family.  The key thing is to have food-grade cedar planks and soak them well before you start.  We can find cedar planks easily in grocery stores. Except for the fresh salmon, everything else is likely in your cupboard.

INGREDIENTS:

4-6 salmon fillets

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup grainy (old-fashioned) Dijon mustard

3 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 – 2 tsp coarse sea salt

It’s a good idea to have a spray bottle with clean water nearby, in case you get flames. There is a lot more control with a gas grill, but we always use charcoal.

DIRECTIONS:

Soak the cedar plants for at least two hours or longer. This will keep them from catching fire.  We use a roasting pan and place something heavy (a pot full of water) to keep them submerged.

Mix the maple syrup, Dijon, cider vinegar and salt.  

 

Place fillets in a resealable plastic bag or in a glass dish. Add marinade and mix to ensure good coverage.  Marinate for 20 minutes to fourhours.  

Place on soaked boards.  Cook on a gas or charcoal grill for about 20 minutes. We always use charcoal but it's still great on a gas grill. Fish cooked on boards may take a bit longer than in the oven or in a pan.  The boards may char and you might need to spray the wood if the fire is too hot. This isn't as much of a problem on a gas grill.

Transfer to a platter and enjoy!  

We certainly did on a beautiful late summer  evening outside. We served our salmon with fresh corn on the cob and a simple green salad.   What kind of sides would you pick?

 Mary Jane Maffini is the award-winning author of three and a half mystery series: the Camilla Maffini mysteries, the Fiona Silk capers and the Charlotte Adams organizer mysteries – number six coming soon! With her daughter Victoria Maffini, MJ collaborated on The Book Collector Mysteries as Victoria Abbott. Victoria Abbott spent several happy years on Mystery Lovers Kitchen. MJ  is very glad to be back and Victoria is waving at you all!

The first five Charlotte Adams are being reissued by Beyond the Page Publishing. Recipes have been added and of course, the organizing tips continue! The Charlotte Adams books have recently been optioned for television films.

Organize Your Corpses was re-released as an e-book and a trade paper on May 18. There's a great deal for the e-book.   You can order it HERE!

The Cluttered Corpse was reissued on June 15th and Death Loves a Messy Desk arrived on July 13th. 

Closet Confidential was out in August.

AVAILABLE SOON!

THE BOOK COLLECTOR MYSTERIES BY VICTORIA ABBOTT

Jordan Bingham has a tough time: she's the first person in her large family to go straight. She has learned some useful skills from her crooked relatives but she's trying to hang on to a legit job working for a curmudgeonly book collector. But of course, the bodies keep piling up.  There's lots of fun in the book collector series from Victoria Abbott.

Don't forget to check out MJ's Canadian books:  Camilla MacPhee features a fortyish widowed lawyer who runs an advocacy agency for victims of violent crime, in Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Life would be easier if she didn't have the world's worst office assistant, the world's bossiest sisters and, arguably, the world's greatest stubborn streak. If you like your mysteries a bit edgy with a side order of humor, these could be for you.  

Keep up on the news!  You can sign up for updates about MJ and Victoria plus fun and prizes through our newsletter HERE 

 

Grilled Fish with Caper Vinaigrette

by Sheila Connolly

For some mysterious reason, lately I’ve been possessed by a need to sort and toss stuff. Kind of like the reverse of nesting. Unnesting? My daughter moved out over two years ago, so it’s not that. Maybe I’ve finally reached a breaking point because I’m surrounded by a WHOLE LOT OF STUFF (yes, I’m shouting).

As a small part of this I’ve been going through my recipe collection, both the inherited ones and the ones I started collecting as soon as I had my first kitchen (which was about ten feet square with two cupboards). The oldest recipes come on stained file cards and yellowed newspaper clippings, then progress through Xerox copies of others, and finally neatly typed and formatted copies (such as those from the last five years of Mystery Lovers Kitchen!).

I’ve been sorting them, thinking tabs might be nice if I ever want to find anything (I confess that the Sweet recipes acquired their very own binder years ago--and they do have tabs!). I made a number of happy discoveries: “Oh, look! I saved that!” Having completely forgotten about the recipe, of course. But it’s nice to find recipes that are both tasty and quick, especially for summer, that I tucked away years ago.  Here is one of my finds (or refinds?), an easy grilled fish recipe.

GRILLED FISH WITH VINAIGRETTE

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 Tblsp olive oil

1/4 cup minced shallots

2 Tblsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tblsp capers, drained

1 tsp fresh herbs, chopped (use whatever you like or have fresh)

1 15-oz can white beans (garbanzo, Northern, etc.), rinsed and drained

1 tsp lemon peel, finely grated

1 1/2 lbs firm-fleshed white fish filets (cod, haddock)

Heat the butter in a small skillet over medium heat until brown, stirring often–about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. (If you want, you can strain off the milk solids, which look kind of like brown sand, but they won’t affect the flavor.)

The browned butter (sounds better in French:
beurre noir)

Mix in the oil, then the shallots, vinegar, capers and herbs (I used fresh thyme).  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Vinaigrette

Brush both sides of the fish filets with the warm vinaigrette, then season with salt and pepper. I used cod filets because (a) they were fresh and locally caught, and (b) they are sturdy enough to stand up to grilling.

Mix the beans, lemon peel and the rest of the vinaigrette in a bowl and keep warm. (You can add other vegetables of your choice.)

When your coals are ready, grill the fish quickly (cover the grill briefly to make sure the fish is cooked through, but it shouldn't take long).  Place the fish on plates and spoon the warm bean mixture alongside.

I confess that over the years I’ve had little luck with grilling fish directly on my (yes, vintage) Weber grill. However, several years ago I purchased a perforated tray with handles, that fits very neatly on the grill. I don’t get the nice grill marks on the fish, but the smoky flavor comes through and the poor fish pieces don’t self-destruct when you try to scrape them off the grill.

I served the fish with a salad of fresh New Jersey romaine and sliced locally-grown French radishes.

Razing the Dead, Museum Mystery #5, released June 3rd. 

Zac Bissonnette of Writer's Digest had this to say:  "... best book in the series. Really vivid/amazing pacing/and great incorporation of historical stuff/a view into that world ... it's so rare that series get better, but this one most definitely has."