Summer Feasting with Fresh, Flavorful Harvests

Zucchini. Tomatoes. Corn. For summer feasting, I love to mix and match this colorful array of sweet, early summer vegetables with wild-caught seafood. The freshness and flavor of ripe produce and flash-frozen seafood do practically all of the work for you, turning your plate and your palate into a vibrant palette for creating effortless, culinary masterpieces. 

This bounty comes just in time for a season of dining al fresco, hosting gatherings of loved ones and neighbors, and lots and lots of sunshine — especially up here in Homer, Alaska, where this week the sun “sets” at 11:30 pm.

And now to tantalize your taste buds with some seasonal recipe ideas, here’s a summer-inspired selection: 

• Pacific Halibut with Raw Summer Veggie Salad. The salad is super simple: corn cut straight off the cob into a bowl of cherry tomatoes and raw zucchini, tossed in a lemony dressing. It’s a fresh complement to golden, seared Pacific halibut.

• Grilled Sockeye with Herby Thai-Inspired Zucchini Salad. It’s another salad that features raw zucchini, but prepared sort of like a green papaya salad with plenty of herbs and peanuts.

• Salmon Packets with Sweet Corn and Tomato Jam. To make tomato jam, you’ll cook down ripe tomatoes until they reach a deliciously jammy consistency, then spoon this into a packet with corn and salmon until the contents are steamed to perfection.

• Pacific Cod Stew with Chunky Tomatoes and Coconut Milk. This is a great one to make if you want something chowder-y in the summer, since the coconut milk and ripe chunks of tomato keep this stew on the lighter side. 

• Easy Roasted Tomato-Balsamic Salmon. This recipe essentially bakes a fillet beneath of bruschetta-like topping until the fish is flavorful, flaky, and moist. Try swapping out the salmon for your choice of white fish.

If you’re planning on cooking up a summer feast over the 4th of July weekend, make sure to tee up your WAC boxes by Monday, June 26th at 12pm ET so that we can schedule it to arrive by next weekend. 

Before I sign off, I also want to mention that if you’re traveling, please don’t hesitate to change the address of your summer WAC boxes so that you can host a moveable feast from wherever your travels take you in the U.S. this season. And don’t worry — the seafood will always arrive frozen, even if your boxes are being delivered somewhere warmer than their usual destination. You can manage both your delivery information and schedule from your Account.  

Happy summer feasting! 

Live Wild,

Monica

Pictured above: Summer feasting with Pan-Fried Coconut Pacific Halibut with a medley of seasonal side dishes.