Planked Fish And Grilled Veggies

Planked grilling was this summers big hit. You couldn't read a food magazine without there being some reference to this technique for cooking outside. Well, the summer is over but that doesn't stop us Los Angelenos from doing a lot of backyard cooking. For this meal, I decided to cook some fish on alder planks. Cedar is also nice, but I just happened to have alder on hand.

To prep the planks, I soaked them for about an hour in water. This soaking is to assure that the planks slowly smoke and resist flaming. The smoke thus imparting a mild smoky flavor to the meat. G took some fish from the freezer which included some tuna and dorado caught by his own hands (rod and reel) from one of his past fishing trips. He has to make room for more fish that he's going to catch on an upcoming 10 day trip on the waters of the Pacific.

I seasoned the fish pieces with coarsely ground black pepper and salt. I placed the planks on the gas grill set on medium and placed the fish on top. I closed the grill cover and on we went with cooking.

The planks did smoke quite a bit and I had quite a few flames to ward off requiring me to open the grill cover quite a few times. I neglected to time it, but what seemded like 15-20 minutes later the fish was done. I also grilled some crooked neck yellow squash from my garden. Dinner was served.



For those of you who know me, you then know that I'm not fond of fish. However, I did eat this. Very tasty.

Cooking nearly complete. Some pieces removed from the fire already.