Grilled wild salmon and vegetables: fresh salad.

Wild-caught salmon

• Salmon, lemon or Basil leaves or both
• Olive Oil
• Grilled vegetables
• Squash, eggplant, olive oil, and fresh garlic.

Summer salad

• Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, olive oil and vinegar.

Shopping:

Select wild-caught sockeye salmon without fractures in the flesh of the fish: fractures indicate improper freezing and can affect the taste of the meal. If you don’t have wild-caught salmon locally, visit Vital Choice Seafood where they feature wonderful wild seafood of all sorts.

Look for heirloom tomatoes if you can find them, and see if your market has a new kind of cucumber. Today the local market had English cucumbers (crisp and flavorful), but I would have selected young pickling cucumbers as an option.

Preparation:

An hour before cooking, chop into quarters or thick slices your tomatoes and cucumbers. Combine them in a mixing bowl with sprigs of fresh garlic and any herbs you have growing in your yard or love from your spice cabinet. Lightly salt and pepper. In a separate bowl combine olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a 2/1 ratio, whisk ’til blended and drizzle into the bowl, careful to avoid over-dressing. Place into refrigerator to chill.

Place sprigs of basil and thin slices of fresh lemon on the salmon, drizzle with olive oil. (As an alternate use toasted sesame oil.)

Slice your vegetables so they are at half an inch thick and long enough to sit on your grill. Set in a baking dish, and drizzle them with olive oil and toss them with freshly chopped garlic, a pinch of dried or fresh thyme, and salt and pepper to taste.

Turn your grill on to a moderate heat setting and lay out the vegetables over the heat. (A grilling cage or basket is another option for cooking the vegetables.) Watch them carefully, turning every 5 minutes. When they have been on the fire for about 15 minutes, make room for the fish and everything should finish cooking at the same time.

Set the fish, skin side down, directly on a moderate temperature grill and cook until the delicious fragrance of the salmon lets you know it’s done. The fish should flake easily, and can be barely cooked or quite firm inside, depending on your preference. Skin from wild fish is perfectly good to eat, though if it has been charred, it’s better to save it for your chickens or cats. (Alternatively, you can place the skin in an aluminum foil pocket and you will steam the salmon in the same amount of time.)

Serve all together with your beverage of choice!