This recipe is so fast and easy because the glaze is made with simple store-bought ingredients. This “chef’s secret” can be the beginning of many more great, glazed dishes that you can prepare, using my simple formula.

by Tina Martini, The Medicine Chef  

First, choose an aromatic, such as shallots, a purple onion or garlic. Next, choose a flavor of jam, whole-fruit preserves or marmalade. Finally, choose an acid to balance the sweetness. Citrus juices and vinegar of all flavors work well. Another of my favorite glazed entrees to prepare, using this formula, is Raspberry Glazed Tempeh. Grilled and sliced, I serve it over a wilted spinach salad. Once you try this Peach Glazed Salmon, I think your inner chef will be inspired to invent new entrees of your own!

Ingredients

• 1 large Cedar plank (soak in hot water, 20 minutes minimum)
• 4 8 oz. Salmon Fillets
• 1 tsp. Safflower oil
• 1 medium Shallot, minced
• 1/2 c Peach Preserves
• 1/2 c Orange Marmalade
• 2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
• 1-2 large Navel Oranges, 1/4″ thick slices
• 4 large Peaches, wash, dry, and cut in half.

Directions

1. Preheat your grill to medium-high heat.
2. Using a small sauce pan, saute the shallot in the safflower oil until very soft. Don’t put any color on the shallots. Go low and slow with this process. You’re actually “infusing” them into the oil.
3. Add both the peach preserves and the orange marmalade to the shallots and continue to melt everything together.
4. Remove pan from heat and stir in the red wine vinegar.
5. Set aside while you prep the Salmon.
6. Rinse the fillets and pat dry.

Grilling:  Try it 2 ways for twice the fun!

1. Place the navel orange slices on the grill to form a “bed” for your fish.
2. Remove plank from water, shake off excess water, and place plank on grill.
3. Now put two of your fish fillets on the bed of orange slices and two on the plank.
4. Close grill cover for approximately eight minutes.
5. Open grill and spoon finished glaze over each fillet, reserving some for the table.
6. Brush grill with safflower oil, and place peach halves cut side down directly on the grill.
7. Close lid for another eight to ten minutes.
8. Using a spatula, remove peaches and fish to a serving platter.
9. Serve with remaining glaze.

Tasty Tip

Don’t throw away your planks! They can be washed and sanatized with white vinegar. Once they are too charred to re-use, break them up and use them in your smoker. Or, on a charcoal grill, put the freshly soaked wood chips right on the hot coals. You get to enjoy the smokey flavor, again and again and fewer cedars are sacrificed.

Phyto Facts

Salmon is anti aging magic! Dimethylaminorthine is the phytonutritient that keeps the collagen and elastin in our skin from breaking down, helping keep our skin moist from the inside out. A quality of this cold-water salmon’s omega-3 fatty acid is its powerful antidepressant effect, as well as being a fat burning catalyst. Our brain responds almost immediatly to this type of “good fat.” Overall the salmon keeps us young looking, and quick thinking.

Peaches are loaded with beta-carotene. Our bodies use carotenoids to create vitamin A, one of the most powerful weapons against cancer that we know of. Vitamin A (ascorbic acid) is fat soluble. In this dish, the “good fat” in the salmon helps maximize your ability to process beta-carotene in the peaches. A “fine dining”, skin care double bonus, just in time for Summer!  

by Chef Tina Martini, “The Medicine Chef” @MedicineChef | Facebook Chef Martini is an experienced, well-versed television personality with a successful and proven track record. She holds a doctorate from Bastyr University in Naturopathy and a Nutrition degree from San Diego State University. She mixes cooking with nutrition, fitness and wellness!