We received a nice gift the other day. It was a whole salmon, filleted. It had just arrived from Alaska frozen, so both halves needed to be defrosted at the same time. This was a treat that needed a special preparation.

I looked for inspiration from Raichlen and though about cooking it on a shovel, but then I thought of Mallmann and the ‘Seven Fires’. I thought perfect, I have a lot of wood piling up from my cabinet project. The weather was dry, and nobody was home.

Christmas salmon on the fire

The preparation actually came out of a book “Plank Cooking: The Essence of Natural Wood” by Scott and Tiffany Haugen and the recipe was called ‘Christmas Salmon’. One fillet was a traditional green pesto and the other was a sun dried tomato pesto.

Finished Christmas Salmon

The combination of Salmon and pesto is a winner, not one I have tried before. The one thing I would have done differently would be to cook longer with a fire that wasn’t so hot. It came out a little dry. I am sure it was me and not the technique since I was in and out of the kitchen and trying to get the other aspects of dinner done.

There will be other entries cooking over fire since I have multiple cookbooks oriented toward that idea. Have fun experimenting and good luck with yours.