Foodie Friday: Cedar Plank Salmon and Grilled Asparagus

Yummo! We just made the best salmon ever!!!! We picked up some cedar planks at HEB over the weekend to see if they actually worked on the grill.  OMG! They work wonders!!!

Cedar Plank Salmon & Grilled Asparagus

2 salmon fillets

1 bunch asparagus

1 lemon

red wine

olive oil

garlic powder

salt & pepper

Start by snapping the ends off of the asparagus.  This will take the 'tree' part off of the stem, and leave behind the perfect stalks.  Drizzle olive oil over them and sprinkle on some slat, pepper, and garlic powder.  Next, season your salmon with a little salt and pepper, then top with some lemon slices.  That's it.

About 2 hours before you're ready to cook everything, put the cedar plank in a pyrex dish and pour on some red wine.  Let this soak in for about 20 minutes. After a while, it might run off the plank, so pour the wine out of the pyrex into a cup and pour it back onto the plank.  This step is sooooo worth it. After the 20 minute soak, add water to cover and let it sit for the rest of the 2 hours.

Heat your grill up as you normal would. You want to cook both the salmon and asparagus at 350 degrees until they are done.  The asparagus cooks in about half the time, so have your oven on warm. It can hang out in there until the salmon finishes.  FYI, the cedar plank can (and did) catch on fire. Have some water ready to douse it if necessary. We forgot to check the time, but we took the salmon up to 160 degrees and let it rest to come up a little more in temp.

This was the most moist, succulent, sweet salmon we've ever had! The cedar and wine flavor came up from underneath, and the lemon flavor infused the top.  Each bite was so amazingly tender and juicy.  We had the asparagus on the side with a dijon sauce (whole grain dijon mustard loosened up with half & half) over top.

Even Corgan loved it, and she hasn't liked salmon since she was eating pureed food!