To memorialize something is to honor it, to preserve its memory and to share that memory with our community. This weekend we do just that for our fallen soldiers, and all who have served our country. Despite the divisions and the challenges America is facing, we come together at the end of May to share in this memorial and to remember to never take life or liberty for granted. Especially this week.
With this in our hearts, Memorial Day is also one marked by a sense of togetherness and life. On the cusp of summer, the long weekend is filled with a seasonal joie de vivre, an occasion to gather with family members, friends, and neighbors in celebration of the spirited months to come — perhaps a small reminder that, through the good times and hard times, we’ve got a community around us to share it with. What better way to celebrate with them than by gathering around the heart of a smoky grill and a communal table laden with wild-caught seafood?
If you’ve ever grilled fish before, you know that it can be a finicky protein to throw on the fire, but when you get it right the results are beyond mouthwatering. It’s delicate, cooks quickly, and is flaky enough to fall through the grates in one fell flip of a fillet. So unless you’re a grillmaster, you’ll want to read our post on How to Keep Fish from Sticking to the Grill. In it, there’s a brief primer on how to prep your grates for effortless fish flipping, and a rundown of some of the other fish-friendly accessories you might want to add to your cookout toolbox.
Once you’ve got your grill dusted off, cleaned, and oiled, I suggest you start things up with this healthy recipe for a Simple Summer Salad, featuring grilled salmon and mango. It’s great for grill beginners: even if the salmon skin sticks to the grates, it’ll slip right off and allow you to effortlessly flip the rest of the fillet.
Or, if you’ve got a fridge full of the season’s first herbs, make them into an herby zhug, a Yemeni hot sauce that complements the robust flavor of grilled Pacific rockfish. Rockfish fillets are particularly delicate and flaky, so you might consider investing in one of the grilling accessories we’ve listed in the “fish sticking” post I shared above. I’ll also share an insider tip: our recipe development team was partial to grilling the rockfish fillets on a cast-iron grill pan, since there’s zero risk of losing the fish to the fire.
We’ll have lots more grilling content coming atcha throughout the season, so stay tuned to stay inspired, whether you’re grilling in a backyard, on a rooftop, or on a stovetop.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: A simple salad of greens and goat cheese, topped with a meaty fillet of salmon and tart slices of mango — both crisply branded with the telltale marks of a hot grill.
