Shan Man's Grill: Fourth of July Grilling Recipes

For some of you out there, the Fourth of July is a great way to spend time out at the lake with the family, make a nice 2.5 hour jaunt up north to escape the heat, or just a way to relax to keep yourself from melting in your car. There's the likely chance that you or one of your friends will be throwing some type of drunken get-together that will be filled with plenty of beer, pool water, naked chicks and (hopefully) some form of debuachery.  Of course, you can't have a toilet filled with puke without some awesome BBQ to regurgitate back up, right?

 

With a little less than a day to prepare for tomorrow, most people are dragging all kinds of meats out of the fridge and marinating it for tomorrow's get together.  There are a lot of awesome recipies out there that are definintely worthy to make it on anyone's plate this holiday, but I wanted to share something outside of the box that isnt' necessarily steak, burger, or dogs.

 

If you've got the time, head on down to Fry's or Safeway and pick up some boneless/skinless salmon.  While you're there, you'll want to make sure to pick up the following:

 

(Serving for 1-2 pieces of 3/4 pound salmon)

1. Soy Sauce (low sodium if you're watching your blood pressure)

2. Minced garlic cloves

3. 3 Lemons (or you can always buy the lemon in a bottle)

4. Sugar

5. Olive Oil

6. Peppercorn seeds (or if you're too lazy to crush up pepper, just buy coarsely ground pepper)

 

After you've collected all of these ingredients, head on home and start preparing the following in a sealable plastic bag:

 

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 garlic clove

2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon of sugar

3/4 pound of your salmon filet

 

Mix all of the ingredients well and let it marinate in the fridge for about 30 minutes.  If you marinte it overnight, the filets come out really tasty.

 

Once you've finished marinating, pat the salmon dry with a paper towel. At this point, you will have wanted to ground up 4 teaspoons of your peppercorns to where it is coarse.  I have an extra coffee bean grinder that I use for spices, so that's one way of getting around the grinding issues. If you're too lazy, just buy the McCormick's coarse pepper. It will do the trick, but not taste as good.  

 

Go ahead and coat the salmon in your pepper until it's breaded on both sides.

For grilling in a pan: sauté in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over moderately high heat until it is hot, but not smoking.  Grill the salmon on both sides for about 2 minutes or until it starts to flake.

For grilling outside: if you have your grill really hot, you'll want to definitely watch your salmon as it will cook up fast.  Keep an eye on it and the be the best judge on each side. If it starts to flake off, you'll want to make sure you grill the other side enough to where you don't destroy the meat.

 

Once you're finished grilling, you'll want to put it on a plate with paper towels (if you've grilled in a pan, you'll want to drain the oil).  

Choose your sides and go to town.

WHAT TYPES OF MEATS DO YOU EAT AND HOW DO YOU PREPARE THEM? ;)

Have a safe and GREAT Fourth of July!

SM

 

BONUS: Spiral Cut Your Wiener