Here at Cook Local, we’re not professional chefs. We’ve learned a lot by trial and error. Not all recipes (even ours) are that easy to follow. So every Thursday, we’ll bring you a quick definition and a couple of pointers on a different cooking technique.
Today’s technique is planking. With the return of nice weather (at least sporadically) to the Pacific Northwest, it is time to break out the grill. We’ll be posting a lot of grilling recipes over the next few months. Whether we’re using our Big Green Egg or our gas grill, one cooking technique we employ often is planking.
Planking: To use a thin (usually half an inch or less) piece of wood, soaked for more than an hour, as a cooking surface for foods. Typical plank materials include cedar, cherry, alder, hickory, pecan, or apple, however there are numerous others as well. The wet plank creates steam when introduced to a cooking environment which flavors the food.
We plank a lot of food during the summer. Look for a great planked asparagus recipe next week. The biggest challenge for planking is to adequately soak the planks in water before cooking. It isn’t enough to soak the planks for 20 minutes, you’ll need at least an hour or better yet, 3 hours. If the planks aren’t thoroughly soaked and wet, they have the potential to catch fire when cooking. Trust us on this, we speak from experience!
Planking is a simple way to impart a subtle flavor to just about anything you can cook. since salmon season opens in just a few days, we highly recommend starting with some fresh planked salmon.
