Ginger Grilled Salmon

I am a little late posting today, because I have been doing laundry all morning (in between naps...yes, I am still sick). My new washer and dryer arrived safe and sound, and I have been catching up on all the clothes-cleaning that I refused to do while I still had my old set. Actually, I couldn't use my old ones. We pulled that set out of the house and stored them in our garage, when we discovered the mold problem. Any-who... I am very much in the honeymoon-phase with my new appliances. I promise I will stop talking about them soon. Really, you only probably have a day or two more of me going on and on about my washer and dryer. Maybe. Okay...I am just kidding. I will stop. I think.

Soooooo.....dinner. I returned The Red Hat Society Cookbook back to the library promptly after having that last disastrous meal. However, I had already copied this recipe down and put it on my menu plan for the week. I thought about skipping it or finding something else to do with my salmon, but I decided to just stick with it. Hopefully, this recipe will be much better than that last horrid dish I tried from that book. It sounds reasonably good, but I am very skeptical. That last recipe was so terrible, it tainted all the other recipes in that cookbook...just by association! I really don't like taking chances with salmon, since it is a little pricey. Sigh. I will be brave and just try it. Hopefully, it will be hard to goof up grilled salmon. It really all comes down to the sauce; and the ingredients sound normal. At least we have plenty of leftovers from the last two nights to piece together another meal; if this recipe does happen to go south. Can you tell I am really confident???? You see, it is that darn cookbook bringing me down! It's the whole "one bad apple theory".
I think I will serve this with some soba noodles and some steamed broccoli. I think we have enough romaine for a salad, too. Please just keep your fingers crossed for me. Sigh. Here we go...

Ginger Grilled Salmon

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tablespoons of butter
3 shallots, minced
6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco
3 Tablespoons of fresh, peeled ginger; minced
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
3 teaspoons of soy sauce
3 teaspoons of finely chopped cilantro
4 (6-8 ounce) salmon fillets
parsley for garnish

Directions:
Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until soft. Add lemon juice, brown sugar, Tabasco, ginger, vinegar, and soy sauce; stir until well combined. Remove from heat and add cilantro. Baste salmon liberally with sauce and grill 3 inches from flame (7-10 minutes per side, depending on thickness). Baste frequently while cooking. Remove from grill and serve. Garnish with parsley and serve with remaining sauce on the side.

Jen's Notes:
Yikes!!! 7-10 minutes per side seems excessive for salmon, doesn't it??? I don't know about the cook time on this one. I would say use your best judgement for the actual cook time, depending on your grill and your fish. I think 7-10 minutes per side may turn the fish into charcoal...but that is just my opinion. I will let you know how long ours actually cooks in my 'results' post.



The Result:
This was just okay. The husband really liked it, but I found it to be a little bland. I ended up putting some hoisin sauce on my fish to dress it up a bit. I don't think I will make this again, because there are a lot more salmon recipes out there, with a lot more flavor. Like I said...it was decent; but not anything that blew my socks off.
I used an indoor grill pan and the fish only took about 4 minutes per side (not 7-10 as recommended in the recipe). Again, I am really not impressed with this recipe or this cookbook. I am glad that I returned it to the library, and did not purchase it for part of my collection.