Make this Mother's Day a BBQ Day

This year’s will be one for the books.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner.  Trying to find the best way to celebrate Mom can be hard and even trickier now with social distancing and quarantine.  The go-to idea is to make Mom breakfast and while this may be a good idea on paper, it usually ends with her spending a good part of her special day cleaning up the huge mess left behind.

Another option would be a trip to a local trendy hot spot for brunch or dinner, but this year that won’t be possible due to mandated stay-at-home orders.  Besides, if the world was the way it use to be, there would a good chance that you’ll end up waiting around forever for a table large enough for your family and witness someone either one of the kids or grownups having a full meltdown.  

But this year we have hope. How about firing up the grill for a true family feast?  Rather than staying inside - as we have been doing a lot of – why not spend time outdoors this Mother’s Day?  After all, no other style of cooking brings friends and family together more than a backyard cookout.  We need that now more than ever.  Of course you’ll need to setup the family size jug of hand sanitizer where it’s accessible by everyone, just not next to the cocktails as that could be hairy.  This will be a Mother’s Day to remember.  Do it, march out onto the patio or yard, toss off the cover of the BBQ and grill some great food.  Do it for Mom.

Wood Plank Grilled Salmon

Number of servings:  4

Ingredients 

800 g whole salon fillet, with skin

2 cloves of garlic

2 tsp ginger, fresh

4 tbsp rice vinegar

4 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

0.5 tsp black pepper (any kind of spice for heat)

1 pcs lime

1 spring onion, scallion

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Mint yogurt

5 twigs mint, fresh

1 tsp sugar

300 g yogurt, natural

2 tbsp lime juice

salt

Serve with

800 g sweet potato

salt and pepper

aluminum foil

• Soak the plank of untreated cedar or aspen in cold water for 2-3 hours before grilling (weighing it with something heavy).
• Rinse the salmon in cold water, dry with a paper towel and place in an airtight container.
• Finely chop garlic and ginger, and mix with rice vinegar, soy sauce, honey, pepper and lime juice for the marinade.
• Pour marinade over the salmon and close the lid.  Marinate for 15 minutes, turn the fish and let marinate for another 15 minutes.
• Remove the salmon from the marinade and place in the middle of the grilling plank.
• Grill the fish for approx. 15 minutes.  Cover with a lid if you have available.
• Sprinkle spring onion and sesame oil over the fish at the end of the cooking time.

Mint yogurt

• Crush mint and sugar together in a mortar and mix with yogurt.
• Season with lime juice and salt to taste.

Serve with

• Cut the sweet potato into wedges and place in a sheet of greased aluminum foil.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grill until tender.

Serve the salmon with mint yogurt and sweet potato wedges.

TIPS

How long to cook the fish?  As a reference, allow about 10 minutes per inch/2.5 cm thickness of fish.

The wood plank should be a little longer and wider than the fillet.