Pike Place Market
In a league of its own, the Seattle Pike Place Market opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest continuously operating farmers markets in the country. Vendor tables stretch along the waterfront on four levels, with a backdrop of vistas over Puget Sound humming with ferry and commercial boat traffic. One of the most popular tourist attractions in the country, the market was busy last Friday afternoon, hucksters enticing passersby to their stalls, the steady march and mumble of the foot traffic, and the random horn blast from a ship about to leave port.
I didn’t see any fish flying across the counter at the Pike Place Fish Market, as I remembered from my last visit there some 40 years ago. But there were plenty of fish, salmon mostly, though one leering monkfish threatened the passersby.
I wasn’t always a salmon enthusiast. Growing up in Philly in the 50s and 60s, I only knew it as the pink stuff in a can that was vastly inferior to tuna fish. I learned otherwise when we went to Alaska in 1980, experiencing salmon in situ, and became an ardent convert.
In a recent random roundtable discussion of “what one food would you choose if you could only eat one food?” I immediately chose salmon. But I would qualify that with a few adjectives like fresh, wild, or humanely farmed. Just never overcooked and dry. The fact that salmon is one of the healthiest of protein options, with its abundance of healthy Omega 3 fats seals the deal, not to mention the Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D and minerals like iodine, potassium, and selenium. Salmon is good for you.
My visit to Seattle started on a high note with a reunion with a friend that I hadn’t seen in 30 years who picked me up at the airport and whisked me to her town of Edmonds for a quick drive-by tour of the marina and a cup of seafood chowder at Arnie’s restaurant. Anne-Lise Deering has lived in the Pacific Northwest for 24 years, happily embracing the terroir and merroir sympatico with her Norwegian roots.
Her home in Edmonds which she shares with Mike Anna, a central PA transplant, is ringed with huge fir trees. She still manages to grow an abundance of herbs and vegetables in containers on her deck along with some rhubarb. Gooseberries and currant bushes afford fruit for the wine that she makes, crisp and dry with a hint of fruit, a perfect foil for the Coho salmon on our dinner menu.
Mike manned the grill and roasted the cedar-planked salmon to perfection while Anne-Lise picked and then tossed sprigs of herbs into the green salad studded with cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. The fifth wheel, I oversaw steaming the broccoli. Anne-Lise had made a loaf of moist rye and wheat bread that afternoon and sliced it thin, with curls of butter adjacent. It was a feast. She had even made a rhubarb pie that was unusual, with a thin layer of banana on the bottom for sweetness
I had salmon several more times over the weekend—covered with a mushroom velouté sauce and topped with caviar at Coastal Kitchen, smoked on a bagel, and even a tasty dill and mustard-flavored salmon cake. But the planked fish with its faint whisper of cedar smoke was the star. Along with my friend.
Mike Anna’s Cedar Planked Salmon
Slab of center-cut salmon fillet, about one and a half inches thick
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic paste (Anne-Lise gets this at an Indian grocery store but you can make your own by pressing garlic and adding a little vinegar or citric acid and water)
Finely chopped green onions
Fresh dill (or tarragon or summer savory for variety)
When I asked Anne-Lise where she got a cedar plank, she winked and looked around the perimeter of her deck. It was all cedar fencing. Find a piece of untreated cedar (sold at Whole Foods these days, right in the fish department) and soak it for about six hours, so start at noon if you are planning dinner for around 6 pm. Place the fish skin side down on the plank and season with salt and pepper, spread with the garlic paste, top with the green onion, and strew with dill.
The grill should be preheated and very hot, but you want to use indirect heating so the wood doesn’t catch on fire. Move the coals to the sides or turn off the burners in the center on a gas grill. Cook, covered, for about 20 minutes until the flesh is firm or the salmon registers 135°F on an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part. Allow to rest a couple of minutes and serve.
For information about how to choose salmon that is sustainable, Seafood Watch published by the Monterey Bay Aquarium is an excellent guide.
Some tips from Mike: Soak the board for about 3 hours. Grill temperature should be a little lower than what you'd use to sear a steak. Leaner fish like coho and steelhead seem to work well. For Fattier fish like Chinook (King), or Atlantic salmon you may want to watch closely to avoid the fat and the board catching fire.