What's on the Grill #83

Grilled Salmon with Don't-Pitch-it-Grill-it-Vegetable-Basket! Last night was our final meal together in Florida. It has been a great week. Although the weather started off wet, it ended perfectly. Everyone seemed to think the week flew by, but I, on the other hand felt, it moved forward at just the right pace. Now this does not mean I am ready to go back to work come Monday. It just means the time was well spent and well enjoyed.

Since we are near the ocean, it makes only perfect sense that we enjoy copious amounts of seafood. Dad decided to whip up salmon while I was charged with grilling every bit of perishable veg left in the refrigerator.

The salmon was prepared on Dad's topper...again. I keep trying to get him to ditch that thing, but no luck. For a rub, he picked up a seafood mix from William Sonoma. For whatever reason, I get satisfaction out of making my own rubs. That withstanding, this rub was great. Unfortunately, I think there was a little too much heat in it for everyone else. The rub was a mixture of chili, red pepper flakes, basil, coriander, salt and pepper. I am going to do my best to duplicate this when we get home. I really, really liked it.

I typically do not use a vegetable basket, or any other kind of grill topper accessory. In my book it is just one more thing to clean. Sadly, as I write this I am looking on Amazon to order one right now. Oh, the humanity! Anyway, to keep the refrigerator from turning into a microbiological petri dish, we cleaned out all of perishable vegetables: mushrooms, broccoli, zucchini, peppers, red onions, Anne, green onions and new potatoes. Just kidding, we didn't grill Anne. All were cut into bite size, "kabobish", pieces. The potatoes were microwaved for 5 minutes prior to grilling. Yes, technically they should have been parboiled, but I was in a hurry. The mass of veg was assembled in the basket and then drizzled with olive oil, dried basil, salt and pepper. I prepped the kettle for indirect, and initially placed the basket directly over the coals. After the excess oil burned off, the basket was moved to indirect where it was occasionally stirred over its 25-30 minutes cook time. I left the lid off the kettle most of the time, only because I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. I was afraid I might overcook everything. Truthfully, you could handle this more like a stir fry with the basket over direct high heat. I was just trying to balance out the cooking time...something I always screw up.

In the end, it was a great dinner. The salmon, as I previously indicated was hot and good, and the vegetable basket of wonder turned out to be so memorable, I am looking forward to our next one. There is nothing better than vegetables on the grill. I am glad I experimented with yet another way to prepare them.

Well, it is clean up and travel time. I am looking forward to Sunday...because we are grilling something at home!