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04/19/2003 Archived Entry: "SALMON ON THE GRILL"
SALMON ON THE GRILL
Tomorrow our family is gathering around the table later on in the afternoon for a repast of fresh veggies, salad and salmon fixed on the grill. They all can’t make it as two are in Illinois and another is cooking for the masses. There will be six of us, but that will be very nice, especially since the famous family pie maker is one of them and will bring fresh strawberry pies to die for.
I found a beautiful salmon filet weighing about three pounds so I’ll marinate it and then throw it on the bbq grill. The recipe I’ll use is a variation of the usual one…maybe just a little special for the holiday. I make a marinade from juice of a lemon, a little fresh minced garlic, 1/3 cup of soy sauce, 1/3 cup of orange juice, 1/3 cup of packed brown sugar, ¼ cup of salad oil and some fresh ground pepper and then let the salmon marinate in the sauce in the refrigerator a couple of hours. Since I don’t have a basket for it, I’ll just put it on a piece of heavy duty foil and let the fruitwood smoke billow from the side.
Speaking of…we have an old Charbroil that we cook on that has been around almost as long as we have. My parents gave it to us shortly after we were married and if I had a dollar for every time we've used it, I could really retire. When they built those years ago, they built them “hell for stout”, as Lloyd Grothusen used to say. They don’t make them anymore, so we’ve learned, and our smoke basket just fell apart last week after a day of smoking some baby back ribs. Alas! Years of use has taken its toll on this 52 year old relic. Brit took the shards of the basket to Shorty Choitz who made us a new one out of steel that will most certainly last 100 years. It’s a dandy and he did a super job on it. We will initiate it tomorrow. It's the Shorty Choitz's of the town that make this the greatest place in the world to live.
Smoking salmon always brings to mind the backyard parties of long ago hosted by a couple of our friends, Carolyn and Clair O’Donnell. They would involve 20 or 30 adults and a passel of kids. They were great fun. Carolyn’s sister lived in Eugene Oregon and back in those days of rather dependable rail service, she would ship fresh whole salmon to us from Oregon. It was the same way grocery stores got fish and shell fish from the coast in the old days. The salmon were packed in ice as they left Eugene and repacked several times along the way by train personnel. They had a special service just for that.
We’d all gather in the back yard of their home in anticipation of the special treat we were going to enjoy and spend an inordinate amount of time speculating exactly where in Kansas the train might be as it headed our way. Sometimes it was a longer wait than expected, but it was always late so we figured that into our plans. The charcoal was laid; the refrigerator and tables were laden with food we’d contributed. There were coolers full of beer and sodas and snacks to tide us over. I even remember the weather being perfect....but memories sometimes fade.
Once the call came from the depot announcing the salmon had arrived, a couple of the guys would head down there to pick up the crate while others made sure the charcoal was blazing. There were usually two large salmon still packed in ice and ready for the fire. We rinsed them off, slathered them in lemon garlic butter and cooked them slowly over the coals. We hovered over the grill watching it cook away. That was the best salmon ever…and about the only time we ever had salmon in those days.
My friend who planned all of this for so many of us is lying in the hospital as I write this. She and I frequently reflect on these good times we had so many years ago. Good memories such as these mean a lot to her during such times as these.