Planked Grilled Salmon Aboard

Cooking aboard a boat is a delight, and can make for some fond memories. Cooking aboard does not need to be canned tuna and sandwiches. Let me show you how to prepare a gourmet seafood meal that will impress your guests. Planked grilled fish aboard the trawler, the Patricia Ann; it’s the talk on the docks these days.

Planked grilled fish or simply cooking on a wooden board is a great experience; if you like the taste and smell of smoked meats, this method is for you. This technique is great as it gives you real smoke for flavor. This is especially good if you are grilling fish fillets, my favorite. As a matter of fact, legend has it that this approach to grilling came about as a result of fish cooking experimentation. But I suppose you could cook anything this way. I like to call this method planked grilled fish. Salmon and Mahi cooked on cedar are my favorites.

We will begin to post some of our other favorite recipes in this blog as time goes on.

So how do you go about it? To start you’ll need to find some clean cedar lumber, Lowes and Home Depot have it in their lumber sections. But you’ll have to cut it into the right sizes to use. Or you can also get it ready to use at most large grocery chains or order online.

Typically I use cedar, but many woods like, oak, maple, cherry or hickory is available. Using a clean, untreated piece of wood about 1/2 inch thick and long and wide enough to hold the fish pieces soak the wood in water for several hours before use. I use a section about 6 x 6 for the two of us. Although any wood can be used, just make sure that there are no chemicals on the wood.

When ready, get your gas grill going. I use a Magma Catalina gas grill on my trawler; check out this link to see some of the improvements we have made to the grill. To keep your fish from sticking to the board, coat the fillet with olive oil. You’ll do no flipping or turning when plank fish cooking. The fish is cooked indirectly from the bottom up. Season the fish as you like; we like to use dill weed and brown sugar.

As you know wood burns. We are going to place the plank with the fish on the lower grill surface and set the control to high. If you see that the plank has caught fire while you are cooking, not to worry, it’s the way we want it to cook. Spray it down with a little water to help extinguish the fire. But let it burn a little around the edges; the smoldering of the charred plank is what creates the smoke and flavors the fish.

I always allow about 50% more food preparation time versus regular grilling when I am cooking on a plank. During the cooking time you can baste the fish with seasonings if desired.

Once the fish is done I remove the fish with a spatula or you can just slide the fish off onto a platter. Turn off the grill and let the used plank sit until later to allow it to cool.

Plank grilling is really is a great way to cook fish. The smoke adds to the flavors of any fish so feel free to try different ideas.