In my opinion, this is the one recipe to immediately test, you’ll love it and do it again and again, it is absolutely gorgeous, because it will probably be the best salmon you’ll have ever eaten (really).

Ok here is what you need:

One beautiful salmon filet, the size of the plank, or a giant one, the size of two planks. The following quantities are for one plank.

For the marinade.

1/3 cup olive oil, and a good one at that, but well, I’ll stop writing this, it’s true for all ingredients.

1/3 cup soy sauce (salty please)

1 ½ tablespoon of white rice vinegar (the taste is more elegant than the brown one, put a little bit less if you have brown rice vinegar only)

1 teaspoon sesame oil if you have it. Otherwise, chestnut oil, walnut oil, argan oil. Basically, a little bit of an oil from nut. If you have none, don’t cry, it will still be excellent.

¼ cup of chopped shallots or green onion

1 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger. Only have ground ginger? No problem… but put less, 1 small teaspoon will be enough.

1 tea spoon minced garlic.

Not for the marinade:

1 lime (or not)

Put your Bord’oak plank into water 12 hours before. Yes, it takes some planning but with the above list of ingredients, I’m pretty sure you have planned this already. Call your friends and family to be sure they haven’t forgotten your invitation.

Decide on a very important point: keep or remove the skin of the filets? The best in class says, remove them. Experience says, if you have forgotten, it will still be excellent don’t worry.

In a huge bowl, mix all ingredients for the marinade. Easy no?

Place the filet in the bowl (that’s why it had to be a huge one), turn to coat, cover, for at least 15 minutes to one hour.

This is where Ben comes with the lime. Cut four-five thin slices, and use the rest into your well-deserved cocktail.

Put the cocktail glass away, the time for you to start your barbecue. Congratulate yourself with the cocktail once the fire is started (that’s where these chimneys are handy).

Place your Bord’oak plank on the grill and close the lid. Open the ventilation to maximum. When it smokes, put the filet on the plank, the majority of the marinade on top of the filet (the shallot…) and the slices of lime if you’re Ben or if you love lime.

Close the lid, reduce the lid’s ventilation (I leave it half open) and let cook, at least 20 minutes. Depends on the width of the filet actually. When it’s cooked, you can pull it apart with a fork held between two fingers.

Serve the plank on the table but whatever you put your Bord’oak on, be sure to protect it as the plank might still be burning underneath. Stone, ceramic or anything protected with at least a double sheet of aluminum foil is mandatory.

Enjoy that with rice, seasonal vegetables and a good bottle of white Bordeaux wine from the Graves area.
And get all the congratulations from your guests.

Did you know it?

Salmons were so frequent in the Garonne river in Bordeaux in the 19thcentury that a myth says workers were asking not to eat salmon more than thrice a week. It’s obviously a myth, because with your Bord’oak planks you could eat some everyday!