Angler reels in the secret to restaurant's salmon salad.

Byline: HOME COOKING By Jim Boyd The Register-Guard

Gail Codding of Veneta is an avid angler who can show you the photo of the 20-pound Chinook salmon she caught last fall at the mouth of the Siuslaw River at Florence. She works as an office specialist at the Oregon State Police office in Springfield and fishes with her husband, retired OSP detective Dave Codding.

Codding was nominated for the Home Cooking column by a co-worker who described her as an amazing cook who always comes up with great dishes for office potlucks.

Codding provides her recipe for a salad she tops with breaded salmon cooked on a barbecue. She's never served the salad at an office potluck because the fish tastes better if freshly cooked.

Specialty: "Just home cooking," she said. "From meat and potatoes to salads, soups. I am an avid fisherman with my husband, and so I am very interested right now in different fish dishes."

How she began cooking: "My mom and dad both cooked, and growing up I was responsible to help out," she said. "I have three brothers and a sister, which is kind of a large family, both parents working, and so cooking was more or less the responsibility of the ladies growing up in the household."

Her biggest cooking success: "I have to say salads," she said. "Because they are a personal favorite, maybe that's why I go the extra mile in finding fresh produce and trying different recipes."

Her biggest cooking failure: "I had a horrible one about four years ago at Christmas," she said. The recipe called for sealing a beef brisket in an aluminum foil pouch with a blend of spices and barbecue sauce.

"First it marinates for 24 hours," she said. "Then you put it in a pot sealed in tin foil and it bakes for 24 hours.

"They say you're never supposed to experiment on guests and you're not supposed to experiment at very important occasions, but I did."

She got up early Christmas morning and discovered all the liquid had evaporated. All that was left was a burned slab of meat.

"So we went to the freezer and got out halibut and fixed a halibut dinner for Christmas dinner."

Her favorite cookbooks: She lists "America's Favorite Fish Recipes" by The Freshwater Angler and four homegrown cookbooks: Maryana Vollstedt's "Big Book of Potluck" and "Big Book of Casseroles," and the Junior League of Eugene's "Taste of Oregon" and "Savor the Flavor of Oregon."

Why this recipe was chosen: "At one time, I visited McGrath's and I had a fish salad. It was salmon that was very lightly breaded on a bed of greens. It had different flavors in it and I was never able to copy it completely ...

"I decided that it shouldn't be that difficult to create a salad with a breaded little fillet of salmon on it. And I've been just playing with it on a few occasions and it's just grown to where I like it, my husband loves it, the family thinks it's super, and it's kind of one of my personal favorites."

BBQ Salmon Salad

For the salmon:

PAM no-stick cooking spray

2 cups panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt

1/4 cup chopped parsley

2 pounds salmon fillet (boneless, skinless tail section suggested), cut into 2 or 3 large pieces for easier handling (the pieces will be sliced after cooking)

1/2 cube melted butter

For the salad:

2 cups cooked penne pasta

8 cups torn romaine lettuce

1 jar (6 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts, drained, cut to bite-size

12 to 16 black olives

10 to 12 cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup sliced/chopped Spanish red onion

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

Essensia brand Asian Sesame bottled salad dressing, available at Albertsons ($2.99 for 12 fluid ounces)

Lightly spray a disposable aluminum pan with PAM.

Combine panko, orange and lemon peel, garlic salt and parsley in a large bowl. Mix well.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels. Dip each piece of salmon into melted butter and then dredge salmon with the panko mixture and place in the aluminum pan. Sprinkle any remaining panko mixture and any butter over the salmon pieces.

Cook on barbecue over medium heat for a total of 15 to 20 minutes, turning each piece over one time during the cooking process. Salmon is done when the meat begins to flake.

Note: The salmon also can be cooked in an oven at 350 degrees. Follow the same procedure, turning once through cooking time, 15 to 20 minutes.

While salmon is cooking, arrange the salad on a large serving dish or platter, mixing the pasta, lettuce, artichoke hearts, olives and tomatoes. Sprinkle the onion and blue cheese over all.

When salmon is done, remove from the grill and pan, place on a cutting board and gently slice salmon into 1-inch strips. Lay the strips of salmon across the salad. Drizzle with Asian Sesame dressing and serve with French bread.

To nominate a cook for this feature, mail to Home Cooking, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440; fax [phone]; contact Randi Bjornstad at 338-2321, or [phone]; or e-mail [e-mail].