When your summer soirées start to call for something a touch more refined than the usual “burgers on the grill,” Beth Le Manach’s debut cookbook Entertaining 101: 101 Recipes Every Host Should Know How to Make has just the thing. This grilled salmon is the definition of easy elegance, light, fresh, and impossibly simple, yet chic enough to impress your guests. Perfect for a party of four, it’s all about the details: tender salmon, artful plating, and a grated radish garnish that looks like delicate flower petals shimmering under candlelight. Serve it at your next summer gathering and you will see why Beth calls this a “kinda fancy” dish you will want to make again and again.

Recipe

SERVES 4

MANGO SALSA

2 cups (375 g) diced ripe mango
1⁄2 cup (75 g) diced red onion
2 tablespoons (22 g) pomegranate arils
1 tablespoon (15 ml) chopped fresh cilantro
1⁄2 jalapeño, diced (about 1 tablespoon/10 g)
1⁄4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) lime zest
Juice of 1⁄2 lime
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black
pepper, to taste

SALMON

Vegetable oil, for greasing
Four 6-ounce (170 g) skin-on salmon filets
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

GARNISH

8 small cilantro sprigs
1 lime, sliced into 4 wedges
1 radish (See Note 1)

Directions

1. Make the salsa: Combine the mango, onion, pomegranate arils, cilantro, jalapeño, lime zest and juice, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.

2. Make the salmon: Grease an outdoor grill or indoor grill pan with vegetable oil and heat to medium-high.

3. Season the top of the fish with salt and pepper. Grill the fish, skin side up, until 1⁄4 inch (6 mm) at the bottom is opaque, 4 to 6 minutes. Then, flip and cook until the fish starts to crack a little bit on top, 4 to 6 minutes more (see Note 2).

4. Divide the fish among four plates and then spoon the salsa over the fish. Garnish each plate with 1 to 2 cilantro sprigs and a lime wedge.

5. Use a coarse hand grater to grate the radish over the fish and plates, working the radish around so you are continually getting the red part. (It will be prettier that way.)

NOTES

1. If you don’t typically have radishes in the crisper drawer (and since you only need one radish for the garnish), serve this meal with the Crudité Platter with Green Goddess Dip (page 50) or A Little Bit Lighter Gazpacho (page 96) as a starter, since both recipes call for radishes.

2. You can also make a tiny incision in the top to check for doneness. You will be spooning the salsa over the fish, so don’t worry—it will hide the cut.

MAKE-AHEAD GAME PLAN

• Two hours ahead, season the fish, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
• One hour ahead, combine the ingredients for the salsa, leaving out the cilantro and the lime zest and juice. Cover and refrigerate. Add the remaining ingredients just before serving for the best flavor.