FoodNerd!

fathers' day fishfest

My brother sent a whole filleted Copper River salmon to my father for Fathers' Day, with strict instructions for cooking the treasure. Being generous and kind, the parents brought the fishy to my house in Waltham to share. Yay!

We fired up the weber kettle and oiled the fish lightly, and laid it out whole on the grill, skin side down, and tented it with foil. We were told not to touch it whatsoever until such time as it was starting to flake and there was a thin line of dark red (raw) still running down the middle, and then to remove it from the coals, tent it again on the platter, and let it sit a few minutes, then eat. It came out perfectly cooked, tender, moist, flavorful. Just lovely. We had it with russet potatoes and vidalia onions roasted in foil in the coals, garden asparagus, challah rolls (from Costco, and yummy), and mixed salad, again from the gardens. We also had a starter course of sauteed chinese cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, and mung bean vermicelli, cooked in a bit of chicken broth & soy sauce.

Dessert was a bit of a disaster (I guess it runs in the family), since Mom's blueberry cupcakes failed to rise, and her intended frosting of vanilla sauce (which I had bought for Dad some years ago; it got hidden in the cupboards & forgotten) turned out to not only be stale, but to have been revolting in the first place -- super thick and sticky, kind of like plastic. But there was ice cream, and the cupcakes tasted good once you scraped off the nasty goo. Happy Fathers' Day!