From: sinster
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 11:22:55 -0800 (PST)
Ok, here's one of my favorites:
Stone Grilled Salmon
NOTE: this recipe requires a hot stone grill. You could fake it by
going out and buying an 18"x18"x1" slab of polished marble or granite
and cutting a shallow grease trough into the top surface (near the
edge) and setting that on top of a gas burner on your stove, but it's
better to get a real hot stone grill. Don't use a ceramic stone such
as the pizza bakers that are so popular these days. If you're faking
it, or buying a new hot stone grill for this recipe, season it as you
would a cast iron pan or a wok before using it for the first time.
Ingredients:
1 whole salmon, minus head, tail, guts, and fins
3 carrots
3 celery sticks
1 leek
1/4 t dried dill weed per pound of salmon, or
1 t fresh dill weed per pound of salmon
1 T butter per pound of salmon.
Place the stone into a cold oven. Turn on the oven and allow it to heat
at its normal rate to 350 degrees.
Meanwhile, descale the salmon. Don't skin it. The easy way is to take a
good knife, and holding the blade perpendicular to the surface of the fish,
drag it across the scales, against the grain. You're using the knife as a
scraper here, so don't drag in the direction of the blade.
You may fillet it, but keep the two halves of the body connected by at
least the dorsal skin. If you fillet, use a very sharp boning knife
and work from the spine outwards. There are 5 rays of ribs in a
salmon: one dorsal, two ventral (one on each side of the body cavity),
and two directly lateral. Start by separating the ventral ribs from
the meat, then the lateral ribs, and finally the dorsal ribs. Each time,
start at the tail and insert the tip of the knife between the ribs and the
meat. Carefully insert as much of the knife as you feel comfortable with.
Then, with the blade of the knife angled slightly towards the ribs, pull the
knife away from the spine along the length of the ribs. The lateral and
dorsal ribs will each require two cuts, one along each side of the ribs,
but the ventral ribs will only require a single cut: one side of the
ventral ribs is just a membrane surrounding the body cavity.
Julienne the white part of the leek, the celery, and the carrots. You
want slices about 3 inches long, and as thin as you can make them. The
leek is easy: cut into 3 inch long cylinders. Then split the cylinders
in half lengthwise. That gives you two half cylinders. With a very sharp
knife, shave thin wedges off of each half cylinder from the center outwards.
Then separate the natural layers of the wedges. The celery is also pretty
easy, since it's already in the form of half cylinders. Cut it to 3 inch
lengths, the as with the leek, shave wedges from it. Cut each wedge in
half once. The carrots will require that each wedge is cut either once or
twice, depending on the thickness of the carrot.
Melt the butter. Mix the dill weed in with the melted butter. If
you want to, you can add a little crushed garlic to the butter and
dill, but don't overdo it: garlic can overwhelm salmon very easily.
Brush over the salmon, inside and out. Use almost all of it.
Stuff the salmon with the julienned vegetables. If you have filleted
the salmon, don't run the vegetables all the way past where the spine
was: you'll risk splitting the skin. Make 3 or 4 small (1/4") cuts
all the way through the salmon near the opening of the body cavity.
Thread a single julienned leek through each cut and tie loosely. This
will help keep the vegetables in the fish as you turn it during
cooking. Do not tie tightly, or the leeks will pull out of the flesh
midway through cooking. No great loss, but slightly inconvenient.
When the oven gets to temperature, let it sit for 5 minutes. Remove
the stone, and place it in the stand over the alcohol burners. Light.
If you are faking a stone grill, place it over your largest burner
with the heat set to medium. Brush any remaining butter over the
stone. Carefully set the salmon on the stone.
Let the salmon grill on each side for 10 minutes. Move the salmon
occasionally so it doesn't stick to the stone. Then remove the salmon
from the grill. Remove the leek stitches, remove the julienned
vegetables, and open the salmon all the way to the dorsal skin. If
the inner meat hasn't cooked sufficiently, spread the vegetables on
the grill, and place the opened salmon on top of the vegetables, skin
up. Let sit for 3-5 minutes. Remove and serve.
Enjoy.
If you're new to hot stone grills, remember one thing: avoid rapid changes
in temperature like the plague. Never put a cold stone on a burner or
in a hot oven. Never pour water (even hot water) over a cold stone.
Always preheat the stone slowly in the oven, always let it cool naturally
to room temperature before washing. Hot stone grills are somewhat like
cast iron cookware: don't wash with soap or you'll remove the season. I
highly recommend buying a plastic pot scraper for cleaning the stone.
--
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