Table of Contents
This book is dedicated to Sam Nassar and in memory of Anna Curtis. We love you.
Introduction
If you have gone so far as to buy this cookbook, you no doubt are intrigued by the prospect of plank grilling. If you are anything like the four of us, you picked up a nicely packaged set of planks, with visions of all the culinary delights you would prepare with them, only to realize you have absolutely no idea what to do with them now that you have gotten them home. We are here to tell you that you are not alone.
We are members of a nearly five-year-old cooking club that meets once a month to try different cuisines and learn new cooking techniques. Maria and Michelle are the original founders. It all started when Maria hosted a summer barbecue. Maria was sharing that she belonged to a cooking club that was thoroughly enjoyable, yet she found herself inexplicably cheating on recipes. All the recipes were light and healthyfood styles that Maria prescribes to on a daily basisbut she found herself wanting to stretch the bounds of culinary techniques and ingredients during her cooking club gatherings. When the recipe called for skim milk, Maria would find herself adding cream just to create a richer dish. When the recipe called for mixing, Maria would emulsify, just to learn the technique.
Michelle, who had recently left her job as a pastry chef to become a stay-at-home mom, was approached by Maria who suggested they create a gourmet cooking club. They met at a local restaurant to discuss the idea with friends. These were friends who love to cook, love to eat, and love to laugh at themselves (a necessity when you dont know what you are doing when preparing gourmet meals). Thus, while at the restaurant drinking lemon drop martinis, the Lemon Drops Cooking Club was formed.
Once a month a rotating host sends out a beautiful invitation to each member, enclosing the menu and a recipe to be prepared and brought.The host always prepares the entre, and the rest of us bring the appetizers, soups, salads, side dishes, and desserts.
The club was touch and go at first. Friends would join for the wonderful camaraderie and the good food, but would leave after a few months when asked to bake their first souffl. We were trying to make everything, from homemade bacon to homemade ice cream, oftentimes resulting in a fiery and slushy mess. Ultimately a consistent group formed, made up of women with a passion for cooking (and who could not be embarrassed nor deterred easily). The renamed Kitchen Table Cooking Club came to life.
This once-a-month event is sacred. There is something immensely satisfying about coming together for a meal prepared by our hands. Not only do we share our immense passion for food, we share a united feeling of sisterhood that lasts us until the next meeting. Cooking club is where we say good-bye to our small children for a couple of hours, leave the responsibilities of work at the office, and enjoy dear friends. We share our hopes and dreams for the future, cry a little, and laugh a lot. Funny what you can learn about someone over a perfect glass of Bordeaux.
When Dina was first invited to join the club, Michelle warned her with these haunting words: We dont do tacos. To this day, every time its Dinas turn to host, those words come to her mind when she prepares her menu. Nowadays, she is not so intimidated, but back when she first joined the group those words shook her to the bone. Her need to impress inspired her to telephone her brother, Sam, who sold baking and grilling planks. Dina asked him to send her some grilling planks that she could use to prepare her next cooking club entre.
Since there werent any plank grilling recipes (other than for salmon) or plank grilling cookbooks on the market, Dina searched for a recipe that she could easily convert to the method. She chose a pan-roasted quail with port sauce that sounded wonderful, and instead of pan roasting she was going to try grilling them on the plank. With no clue about how to use the plank, she practiced for weeks prior to cooking club to ensure a fire-free gathering.
The appointed day arrived and we all headed for Dinas house. She had set a few planks on her kitchen island, and one by one we picked them up to investigate. We were very unimpressed with these pieces of wood. Michelle at one point asked Dina if they were glorified roof shingles.
As Dina started heating the planks on the barbecue, our curiosity began to pique. She placed the quails on the heated planks, closed the lid, and delicious smoke began to emanate from the grill.The lowly grilling plank now had everyones attention. As Dina removed the food from the grill, we all noticed the beautiful mahogany glaze that had formed on the quail and the mouthwatering aroma filling the air. This smoke- and wood-infused dish was nothing short of spectacular. We knew we had something very special on our hands. Using the grilling plank was the start of a great culinary adventure that would lead us to this cookbook.
We all have horror stories from our first plank grilling experiences (all except Maria, who never burned a plank while creating this cookbook). On one of Gretchens turns to host, she was happily scurrying around cleaning, cooking, lighting candles,and getting the mood set. As we were gathering,Gretchen noticed Dina and Michelle looking out onto the patio. They both started snickering. She looked at them and decided she must be missing out on some juicy details and had to investigate. Actually, Gretchens latest plank grilling experience was the juicy detail. She had neglected to discard the evidence from her latest disaster, and there on her patio were the charred, brittle remains of a plank. No need for explanations. We just started laughing.
Michelle remembers the first time she tried to grill some fish on a plank. She had seen it done on television countless times.Piece of cake, she thought. Ill just slap this piece of salmon onto this glorified shingle, and, presto, dinner is served. Well, that is not exactly how things turned out. The next thing she remembers, there looked to be a small brush fire belching forth from her grill in all its glory. Stunned, she quickly grabbed some pot holders and flung the burning plank across the patio, salmon steak and all. She grabbed the garden hose and put the fire out, with the kids screaming in the background, Mommy, do it again! While she loves to entertain her children, flaming salmon flying through the air is not anyones idea of fun. In a fiery instant, her thoughts of overtaking her husband as The Grill Master were dashed. She quickly cleaned up the mess, hid the evidence, and told her husband they were going out for pizza.
Now, let us tell you, all four of us love to cook. We live for that next great meal. We know our way around the kitchen, so what happened? What happened was that none of us could find an in-depth set of instructions or a cookbook to tell us how to plank-grill.
We did, however, have one invaluable source: Dinas brother, Sam Nassar. Sam is the owner of a plank distributor in Seattle, Washington. Over the years, he has heard about our cooking club exploits and the many adventures we have embarked on trying new foods, cooking gadgets, and culinary techniques. When he heard that we were interested in learning more about plank grilling, he gave us advice and tips and guidance throughout the process.
