D&D Wine Review

To go with our Potlatch Planked Salmon, we chose a Pinot Gris we had in our cellar.  We’ve enjoyed the Pinot Noir by Big Fire in the past, and have even had a sangria made with the Pinot Gris at an Atlanta restaurant - so I thought it would be a good white to have with salmon and with our friends the Duttons.

My description of the Pinot Gris was crisp and sweet.  It was very enjoyable, and the sweetness offset the spiciness of the potlatch seasoning.  I can definitely see enjoying this wine, nice & chilled, while sitting on our porch during the hot Atlanta summer.  I looked up the Big Fire Pinot Gris online, and here is how the website describes it: “This wine is crisp and delicious with flavors of pears, apples and delicate blossoms. A delightful summer sipper.”    While I often find wine websites promising unrealistic descriptions of their wine - this one couldn’t be more perfect.  It really is crisp and delicious, and will be a delightful summer sipper.  The tasting notes mention honeysuckle, and that’s a very pleasant image to go along with this wine.  I highly suggest finding a bottle for the upcoming summer season.

Wine: Big Fire Pinot Gris

Purchase: Murphy’s Wine Shop

Price: $14 (per website)

Year: 2006

Fermentation: 100% Stainless Steel

Rating:

Well this is actually Chris’ recipe and not Leslie’s - but we wanted to post because it came out so wonderful and went along with the Pinot Gris we reviewed.

If you haven’t heard of them - the Big Green Egg is a ceramic & charcoal grill - and well once you’ve eaten off of one, you become obsessed.    Its kind of nice, because now Chris offers to cook dinner on a very regular basis.  We’ve had grilled pizzas, smoked pork loin, smoked turkey, smoked chicken and even seared NY Strip at very high temperatures.

We got the idea for this salmon on the Big Green Egg forum -  and we modified it slightly based on our preferences.

First, take cedar boards and soak them for 3 hours.  Around the same time you start soaking, take salmon filets, skin on, and coat the skinless side with potlatch seasoning.  The link to the forum has the ingredients for making it from scratch - we used a pre-made potlatch seasoning blend from Williams Sonoma and were very happy.  Wrap the salmon in saran wrap and store in the refrigerator until a few minutes before you are ready to cook.   When you are ready to grill, get the egg started and up to 400 degrees.  We also threw a few wood chips on for addition flavor (pecan in this particularly instance).  Place the salmon on the planks and place on the grill.  I believe we cooked it for about 20 minutes - you may want to have a squirt bottle of water ready to help with the flames and the planks.

The salmon was so moist and delicious - we were so thankful to have extra for leftovers!  The potlatch season really complements the smoky flavor and the salmon.

We highly recommend not only doing salmon on planks, but we believe everyone needs to go out and buy a big green egg.  We haven’t cooked on our gas grill since we got it.

If you get to try this out, or enjoy a big green egg - please comment and let us know.  Enjoy!