OK. The Nine Days are over and it’s time for a (late) write-up of the non-meat cookery I experimented with this year. Of course there’s no reason why the meatless cookery can’t continue beyond the nine days - it just always turns out that way. Probably something to do with my carnivorous nature. This years’ ‘projects’ included Cedar Plank Cooked Salmon and Grilled Pizza.

Cedar Plank Cooked Salmon - everyone is familiar with “cold-smoked salmon” aka lox. Cedar plank cooked salmon is a “hot-smoked salmon”. A seasoned side of salmon is placed on a cedar board that has been soaked in water, and then the fish and board are placed together onto a heated grill. The board is supposed to smolder and give off smoke that seasons the fish as it is cooking. Supposedly, it’s the way the American Pacific Northwest Indians cook their salmon. Of course, nothing is keeping you from using any fish you want - salmon just seems to be the ‘original’ recipe. I can’t really call this cooking method “grilling”, because the wooden board is between the fish and the fire. Not really “smoking”, because the temperatures are too high. I think it might qualify as “indirect grilling”, but I’m going with the simple “cooked”. My seasonings were ultra-simple: a dry rub of salt, pepper, sugar, cumin and garlic-powder. The package suggested maple syrup (very pacific northwest), but I didn’t have any. I’ve used this same spice-rub for broiled fish.

From some of my previous posts, you might know about my fondness for smoke-cooking and smoked-meat. All of my experiments to date have been with meat & poultry. I have to admit, I didn’t really enjoy this recipe - the smoke flavor was too strong. I can see how meats would have a more assertive flavor that mixes with the smoke flavor, but in this case the smoke flavor won out. Maybe my seasonings weren’t strong enough. Would a stronger/sweeter seasoning would mellow out the smoke flavor? I’m not sure. I would try it agin with a more assertive dry-rub or marinade, but this time, I would have rather had it baked or broiled. If you’ve had a better experience with plank-cooking, let us know about it.

One thing that this cooking method has going for it, is the absolutely easiest cleanup - nothing of the fish leaked over the sides of the board. When the board was removed from the grill, cleanup was done.

Grilled Pizza - I too experimented with pizza, but as opposed to jabbett’s Barbecue Chicken Pizza, my toppings were more traditional. But these pizzas were cooked on a charcoal grill. A method that I’m glad to say, created a delicious pizza.

I’ve seen recipes for grilled pizzas before, but I never worked up the nerve to try it myself. When this month’s Cooks’ Illustrated had a recipe for grilled pizzas, I decided it was time. Empty pizza dough rounds are put on a hot charcoal grill, until cooked on the bottom. The half-cooked dough is taken back to the work area, and the cooked side gets the toppings. In this case, the toppings were a spicy-garlic oil, diced plum tomatoes and cheese. (I know that some of the readers of this blog are cheese fanatics - please don’t shun me for using regular, supermarket, pre-shredded pizza cheese. The recipe called for Fontina and Parmesan. I used what I had handy.) After the toppings are in place, the pizza goes back on the grill, so the uncooked side can get done, and the cover is put on, so the toppings can melt.

As you can see here, when the cheese wasn’t melting fast enough for me (perhaps we piled it on too high?), it was time to bring out the blow-torch. After a brief torching, the cheese was nice and bubbly, and pizzas were done. Please be careful when you cook with a blowtorch. Kosherblog accepts no responsibility.

The pizza was absolutely delicious. The texture and flavor of the charred dough were very nice. Again, the next time I make this I will add more flavors/spices - the simple tomato topping didn’t have enough flavor for my tastes - but I never met a pizza I didn’t like. As long as the toppings are fairly dry and quick cooking, they should work out fine.

I had one dish that I meant to make on the Nine Days, but didn’t get a chance. So, I made it for dinner last night. The dish was Seitan Piccata, and It was great. Don’t know what seitan is? You’re going to have to wait for my next post to read about it. Until then…