-I'm Mary Beth Albright with "The Washington Post,"
and the grill I ordered for today's recipe
arrived unassembled.
So, today we're going to explore the joy of bringing outdoor
grilling flavors indoors into your oven.
Hi! We're back in my kitchen,
and we're making honey-glazed cedar plank salmon.
It's smoky and it's sweet and it's savory
and it's good for you.
A lot of people don't know
that you can cook on cedar planks indoors.
A lot of people don't know you can cook on cedar planks at all,
so I'm going to tell you all about that.
But usually we use them for grilling outside
to give a really smoky flavor.
But you can get that flavor inside in your oven.
Okay, first thing you need is a cedar plank.
You can get this at the hardware store
or grocery stores or specialty cookware stores.
First thing you got to do -- you got to soak the cedar plank.
Because if you don't soak the wood, it could catch on fire,
so all I've done here is put the cedar plank
right into a sheet pan filled with water,
and you got to weigh them down, or else they float.
There you go.
Keep them submerged for at least 30 minutes,
but you could leave them in there all day.
And lookit, if you're outside grilling,
you could stick these in a baby pool if you wanted to.
Heat your oven or your grill.
The should be on about medium heat.
The oven should be about 400 degrees.
While the oven or your grill are heating,
we're going to make the honey glaze.
So you start first with 1/4 of a cup of honey.
Running out of honey.
Put that on the list.
And on top of the honey,
I'm going to put about a teaspoon of mustard powder.
This is also known as dry mustard.
If you only have regular mustard in the house,
you can definitely use that.
It's just going to be a little bit soupier,
a little thinner than a glaze.
But that's totally fine.
It's still going to taste great.
Now we're adding a teaspoon of soy sauce.
That's what gives it that savory, sweet taste -- yum.
Now I'm putting in a teaspoon of lime zest.
Now, look, if you don't have a zester at home, that's fine.
You can also use lime juice -- about a teaspoon.
But the thing is, it's just going to be a little runnier.
Like, the sauces will be a little runnier.
That's totally fine.
Still delicious.
And then we're adding a tablespoon of melted butter.
The butter helps it all adhere to the salmon.
Thank you, universe.
And then we're just going to mix it all together
again with a fork.
The great thing about this glaze is that it's also your sauce
for after the fish is cooked, and it is fantastic.
That little bit of lime really adds something.
A little bit of pepper and a little bit of salt.
Not too much salt, because there's already
soy sauce in there,
and even low-sodium soy sauce is pretty salty.
All right, yay!
So this is how you know that we're really friends,
because this is my video sheet pan,
and this is my real sheet pan that I actually cook on.
I'm covering my sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper.
You can also use foil.
You can also use nothing.
You can just put the plank right on the board,
but the thing is that the sauce might get off of the board
and stick to your pan,
and it's a little bit difficult to clean up.
Now take the cedar plank out of the water.
Oh, gosh, it smells so good.
The cedar plank is going to be wet.
That's good, because number one,
it's going to create moisture in your oven or your grill
that's going to keep the fish moist,
and two, it's going to bring out some of that cedar flavor.
And then you take your piece of salmon, skin side down.
If your salmon has skin, put it skin side down,
and put it just directly right onto the cedar plank.
Now, if you're using your cedar plank on a grill,
it's good to grill one side first and then flip it over
and then put the salmon on top of the side
that you've already grilled
because that gives it an even smokier flavor.
But you can certainly just grill it just like this.
All right, time for the honey glaze.
You might say to me, "Mary Beth,
why are you making it a measuring cup?"
Look. It's so much easier to pour out.
It's not as drippy.
Let's get it nice and coated.
It's a glaze kind of day.
And then just get it all over your salmon.
And now you pop them in the oven, right on the cedar plank.
You want to bake it for about 15 to 25 minutes
until it's about 140 degrees.
Now I know that's a lot of variation,
but think about a fish.
A fish is really thin at the bottom
where the tail is, and then it gets thicker.
So if you get a thicker filet, it's going to take longer.
If you get the tail piece, it's just going to not take as long.
This dish is fantastic when it's made outside,
but it's also terrific when it's made inside,
and I feel like that's what we're all learning right now,
is pivoting and being flexible and making our lives delicious
no matter what situation we're handed.
Look.
I mean, I don't even need to say anything.
You can just look at this.
It's so fantastic.
You can see, the glaze has melted a little.
You've got this -- the lime and the honey
and the mustard all over this, little bits of pepper.
Delicious.
Here we go.
Ah, yum.
I wouldn't call this failure.
There is no failure in cooking.
The grill came unassembled, we brought it inside.
Let's try this.
Mmm.
The lime does so much to this.
The lime, the honey, the saltiness of the soy.
And then the infusion of the smokiness
of the cedar into the salmon.
That smoky cedar flavor -- perfect.
Here's a bonus, too --
you can rinse off the cedar plank and use it again.
I've used mine two, three times,
and the flavor still comes through.
I'm Mary Beth Albright with "The Washington Post,"
bringing the outdoors inside.