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Grilled Salmon with Ginger & Orange Glaze

¼ cup vegetable oil                                ¼ cup mustard

¼ cup orange juice                                ¼ cup soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar                               ¼ cup cream sherry

2 tbsp honey                                         4 tbsp chopped onion

2 tbsp ginger                                         4 (6 oz) salmon fillets

Combine first 9 ingredients adding salt and pepper, if desired.  Place salmon in a shallow pan and pour marinade over fillets.  Place in refrigerator for 30-40 minutes turning several times.

Spray barbecue rack with non-stick cooking spray. Place salmon on a medium hot barbecue, reserving marinade. Cook for 4-6 minutes per side, basting often with marinade. Fish is ready when it lightly flakes with a fork. Pour any remaining liquid over the salmon and serve.

Serves four.

 Grilled Vegetables

I grew up helping my father cultivate his garden.  Barbecue grilled vegetables were part of the meal every Sunday.  This is how he usually prepared them.

Large cuts can be placed directly on the grill giving them a slightly smoky flavor.

Sliced vegetables (e.g. potatoes and onions) are better wrapped in a foil packet.

Salt, pepper, fresh parsley, basil or rosemary while grilling will enhance the flavor.

Comment:

I thought this one was going to be easy.  Pinot Noir, for sure.  But it didn't work out that way.

The Pinot Noirs of the Pacific Northwest were almost created for salmon, and they are my first thought every time I contemplate matching that fish to wine.  But Karen had brought me this recipe with orange juice and brown sugar and honey and ginger in the sauce, and I really couldn't quite see a Pinot with that.  So I began casting around, thinking of other reds: Dolcetto, Rioja, Merlot and so on.  None seemed right.  

The basic difficulty I had was the sweetness of that sauce.  All the reds seemed wrong for that.  I'd love all the ones mentioned above with a grilled salmon, and probably if we were having grilled salmon with a different sauce, like Asian cuisine.  This didn't seem like the right sauce for a red to me.  

After some thinking, I started to consider whites.  Whenever you need a food-friendly white wine, in my opinion, you should start by thinking of Sauvignon Blanc.  California has many good ones, and New Zealand is deservedly famous for theirs.  After that, I think Chardonnay and then Gewurtztraminer.  Thinking that way led me into a long list of wines I might try.  Down under the staircase was a Fetzer Sauvignon Blanc (California Echo Ridge 2001) that was a Wine Spectator Best Buy last year and widely available.  

With a smile, I leaned back and sipped my wine. I always feel better when I have a first choice.  Then I started thinking about more unusual choices that might be under the stairs.  One of them was a 2002 Tocai Friulano from Millbrook Vineyard & Winery in the Hudson Valley, a fruity wine with a crisp finish.  That's a grape normally found in the Friulano section of Italy, but Millbrook has had quite a bit of success with it.  An additional advantage is that hardly anyone you invite to dinner will have ever tasted it before, or maybe even heard of it; it can be your discovery.

Another idea that usually works out well is to drink with the meal the same wine you cook with.  In this case the sauce calls for sherry, so consider a little sherry with your meal.

 Last modified: August 07, 2007