The Bride and I remain busy, and the weather hasn't been helping. Still, I am resolved to grill more this year than last, which shouldn't be too difficult. Still going (at least somewhat) down the healthy route, I picked out the Pesto Salmon Roll-Ups on page 300, as I had spied salmon steaks (not fillets) at Findlay last week. For this post, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
Here is the salmon steak, with my hand used for scale. This thing was NICE!
The first step is to remove the backbone. Run a paring knife down one side of it, taking care not to cut the skin.
Here you can see I've cut down one side, cutting through the occasional "pin bones" on my way down.
The pin bones are easy to locate, and even easier to remove with a pair of needle-nose pliers.
The backbone is now removed!
I will need to use the skin to enclose the barne later, so I used the paring knife again to cut away about 2 inches.
I've begun the tuck, and you can see the skin I need to remove from the other side, otherwise I will have a double layer of skin later on.
So I cut the skin from the other flank away entirely.
I finished the tuck, and secured it with a toothpick. I have have a barne, or medallion of salmon!
This recipe calls for you to make a pesto, and what better way than with a mortar and pestle?
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Add in the cheese and oil, and you are set!
Wanting to actually cook two recipes tonight, I picked up what was necessary for the Grilled Garlic Bread on page 374.
You begin by cutting into the bread, but without going all the way through.
I got to use my mortar and pestle again! I started with just the garlic, as I wanted them to be a nice paste.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
I then added in the butter, parsley, salt, and paprika.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! (And STIR, too, this time)
Brush this compound butter between all the slices.
Wrap up the bread, get your salmon ready, and head out to the grill. Luckily for me, both are cooked for about ten minutes on indirect heat.
They came out nice!
During all of this, I also sauteed some eggplant for an extra vegetable. I started the plating with that.
I placed the salmon medallion on top of that.
The rest of the plate was filled out with the garlic bread. I called The Bride in to the dining room and we shared this plate.
Whew! Okay, so I got a little picture happy. Still, this was a new technique for me, and I wanted to share my learning process. The medallions are fun, and can make you look like a pro, when in reality they are pretty easy to do. As soon as you figure out your first one, the rest will be done in seconds.
For this recipe, unfortunately the eggplant was the best part. The salmon was good, but it wasn't my favorite. Then again, if The Bride had her way, we would never eat any salmon recipe but the Oak Grilled Salmon that keeps showing up. So overall, I liked it, but other than the technique, which WILL be used again, the salmon wasn't that interesting. There is a lot more potential here, and I will investigate this technique further. The pesto was nice, though, and it was fun to dip the bread into it.
The garlic bread was the biggest disappointment of the meal. To be fair, I like my garlic bread toasted, not just warm and soft. I think that this would have been better if the slices were cut after their initial grilling session and put back on the grill for some nice grill marks and crisping up the exteriors. I may have to try this to see if this recipe can be redeemed.
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