You Asked For It
Get Yolo’s yummy recipe for cedar wood plank salmon.
Q. YOLO in Fort Lauderdale is one of my favorites. The food, the ambiance and the service make this an amazing dining experience. Their cedar plank salmon is exceptional. Do you think you could get them to share their recipe? — Linda Struhl, Boca Raton A. The Restaurant People’s co-founder and culinary director/executive chef, Peter Boulukos, graciously agreed to share YOLO’s (333 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, 954-523-1000, yolorestaurant.com) cedar roasted salmon recipe and also offers tips to replicate his scrumptious dish.
The cedar wood plank imparts a distinct flavor, as does the fennel-shallot crust that plays double-duty keeping the fish moist. A tabbouleh salad, served with the salmon, rounds out the healthy, satisfying entree.
When buying the salmon, Boulukos suggests asking your fish monger for fillets of equal thickness to ensure even cooking. To shave the fennel and shallots he recommends using a mandolin, a kitchen slicer designed for cutting fruits and vegetables to desired thicknesses and special cuts. Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife; just take your time and slice as thin as possible. Because most home kitchen ventilation systems aren’t sufficient enough to handle this cooking method, Boulukos advices firing up your outdoor grill.
The Restaurant People has developed more than 70 restaurants in South Florida since 1997. Las Olas has enjoyed YOLO’s modern American cuisine since 2008. Adding to the list of TRP’s venues are Boatyard, S3, Spatch Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken, and nightlife venues O Lounge and the all-new Rooftop @ 1WLO.
Recently YOLO rolled out new lunch, dinner and brunch menu items. Expect to try soon-to-be-favorites such as smoked corn bread, compressed watermelon salad, pan-roasted grouper, fresh cavatelli and brunch treats sirloin steak & eggs and yellowfin tuna tostada, among others.
Q. You’ve helped me before — I hope you can help me again. I lost my mother’s recipe for Danish butterhorns. I know it had yeast and butter or possibly sour cream. The dough was refrigerated overnight, rolled out and filled with walnuts, sugar and lemon that was cooked and cooled. They were cut into 4-inch triangles. When baked it had many, many layers that melted in your mouth. Do you have anything like this? — Shirley Begler, Tamarac
A. Many cultures have their own version of this flaky pastry treat. And for good reason. They are simply irresistible! Especially when freshly baked, they really do melt in your mouth, as Shirley notes.
Depending on the cuisine, the buttery dough is rolled into a rectangle and then jell roll fashion, sliced and baked, or wrapped around metal cones, baked and filled or cut into filled triangles and formed into crescent style rolls. I’m going to offer Shirley’s style and hope that I make her mother proud. Here’s to all the mothers who taught and teach their children to bake. It’s a lifelong gift that keeps giving.