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One of my favorites (and I don't make it often enough), stolen from an old friend who actually made this meal for a feature in Sunset Magazine:

It has no name really, I'll just call it Al Fresco poached salmon fillet:

You can do this on a gas grill or charcoal.

Use a large shallow roasting dish or a cookie sheet with sides, line with foil.

Coat the bottom of the cooking dish with butter and place one or two salmon fillets skin side down. Spread softened butter on top of fillets, sprinkle with plenty of lemon pepper, and salt to taste. Pour beer over top of fish until it is about 1/4" deep in bottom of cooking dish.

Cook until fish is done halfway through (doesn't take long), pouring on more beer as needed to maintain liquid level. Carefully flip the fillets (to avoid breakage, it's easier with four hands and two large spatulas), then coat the cooked side with butter and sprinkle on more lemon pepper, and pour on a bit more beer. Cook until done (and again it will cook rather quickly), then flip skin side down onto a serving dish.

Garnish as desired. For dinner I suggest serving with grilled chunks of marinated summer vegetables and your favorite dipping sauce - but this also makes an excellent brunch served with egg dishes.

On the patio I use a gas grill for economy and convenience, but I almost think charcoal cooks better (I hate those gas grill flare ups) and have been thinking about getting one of those big charcoal grill carts with the warming chamber on the side.

Also indispensable on the patio is a Coleman Steel Belted cooler stocked with a variety of cold beers. The Steel Belted will melt about a bag of ice a day in the 80s, nothing else can touch it.

Baked Fish
per Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer
pages 397-398
interspersed with my comments

Buy fresh salmon [four pieces, $8.14 at Wal-Mart SuperCenter]

Pierce fish skin several places w/ knife point. Squeeze lemon juice [and a little lime jc.] over both sides. Leave w/ skin-side up and put in fridge.

{If possible do the following in a Pyrex measuring cup, 1 c. or 2 c. size.}

In microwave use "defrost" setting to melt a stick of butter, must be REAL butter. Takes approx. six minutes if you use the DEFROST setting. Only takes one minute if you use the high setting but don't b/c it gets ruined easily that way. When melted, remove from microwave, let stand a few minutes.

Skim butter fat from the top, slowly pour clear yellow 'clarified' butter into a container, leaving milk solids in bottom of original container. The clarified butter should be kept near the stove where it will stay slightly warm so it doesn't solidify.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees -- no more. Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil, put rack on it, spray rack w/ baking spray [generic Pam Spray]. Place fish on rack, skin-side down at first. "Basting": with spoon, spread clarified butter on salmon, meat-side first, skin-side second, leave w/ skin-side up. Leave clarified butter near the stove. Put fish in oven; bake a total of thirty minutes, turning over and basting after the first ten minutes. Bake with skin-side down last twenty minutes.

Doneness: Stick a toothpick into the thickest part of the fish, if it meets little resistance and comes away clean, it is in all likelihood done. A "rule of finger" is to press it as you would a cake to see if the flesh returns to its original shape. Disappearance of translucency and flaking easily are also indications of doneness. Guard against overdoneness.

Served w/ salad, rice, and green beans, 5/2/04

[I typed this up for my 20-something kids' benefit, hence the laborious explanation of clarifying butter and so on ... mothering from afar.]

Dave said, 'On the patio I use a gas grill for economy and convenience, but I almost think charcoal cooks better (I hate those gas grill flare ups) and have been thinking about getting one of those big charcoal grill carts with the warming chamber on the side. Also indispensable on the patio is a Coleman Steel Belted cooler stocked with a variety of cold beers. The Steel Belted will melt about a bag of ice a day in the 80s, nothing else can touch it.'

There are an amazing variety of grills to choose from nowadays aren't there?

Thanks for the comments.