I'm going to go ahead and throw out an apology for the lack of posting. I'm on a critical care rotation and Jake is doing cardiology. They're both very demanding. I leave the house around 6:30am and I usually don't get home til about 10pm. Jake's schedule is very similar. There isn't much cooking going on these days. Look for a return to life at the end of this month when I get a break.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Grilled Mahi Mahi, fruit salsa, another salsa, and fried plantains


Sorry I haven't been posting. I've been too busy failing a pharmacotherapy test to get around to it. Now that it's over i'll finish posting our wed night dinner (it's now fri afternoon, post test, and I've had a couple beers).
We did this in honor of Ann, our classmate, who often brings delicious baked goods to class. She didn't show up. Turned out she had to work that evening. We did, however, have Jenny, another classmate, and my little family in town. I had gotten the Mahi steaks from the Dekalb Farmers Market a few weeks ago since good fish is scarce in Augusta. They remained in our freezer til it warmed up some for grillin time. I kind of made up most of these recipes on the fly. Some came from old recipes and the soup was from the Professional Chef.
Jenny, who, "doesn't like fish", really liked the fish. Ergo, it be good. Try it.

The menu:
-Grilled marinated Mahi Mahi [CL]
-Fruit Salsa [CL]
-Some other weird kind of salsa? [CL]
-Fried plantains [JG/CL/AB] yes, it took 3 of us to make the plantains
-Andalucian Gazpacho [PC]

Mahi Mahi [CL]:
salt the fish while you prepare the marinade
for the marinade:
Juice of 2 limes
Half as much white wine vinegar
measurements are estimates. pay attention to ratios
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
fresh oregano
fresh thyme
a lot of fresh cilantro
Combine marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl. Put the fish in a container or ziploc bag and pour marinade over fish. Leave in refrigerator overnight. Turn a few times to make sure fish gets coated.
You don't want to grill fish directly on the grill. It will stick and fall apart and make you sad. Cover the grill in aluminum foil and poke some holes in it with a fork. Grill the fish ~6-10 min a side depending on size and heat. Pour some marinade over the fish while grilling. Squeeze some more lime juice on it when it comes off.


Fruit salsa [CL]:
Really good. Really easy. Goes great over grilled fish. Ripe fruit can be difficult to find but we lucked out.
Small dice:
mango, papaya, honeydew melon
combine in large mixing bowl with salt, lime, cilantro and 1 finely diced habanero.
Mix well and refrigerate. Serve over fish.

Other salsa [CL]:
I'm not sure what the hell I was trying to do with this one. I wanted a vegetable side, but I wanted something different than what we have had in the past. I also wanted something to go with the fish and wasn't sure if we could get ripe fruit for the salsa. So I ended up doing a chutney/relish/salsa combination. I'm not sure what to call it, but it turned out most like a salsa...soooo cilantro corn salsa with mint? I don't know. It was good. Anita ate the hell out of it and she is the pickiest eater I know.
for the 'salsa' you need:
1 red onion, small dice
1 red pepper, small dice
1 jalapeno, small dice
3 ears of corn, grilled and kernels cut from cob
2-3 tomatillos, small dice
fresh ginger, minced
fresh mint
fresh cilantro
juice of 2 limes
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
s/p

Fry the ginger in olive oil on med low heat as long as it can take it. Turn the heat up to med-high. Throw in the onion, pepper, and jalapeno. You're not cooking anything through. This is just to heat up and combine flavors.
Add the white wine vinegar for ~30 seconds.
Add the corn kernels.
Add tomatillos, s/p, lime juice, mint, and cilantro.
Stir to combine. Serve hot or chill and serve cold. We went with hot to balance out the meal.


Andalucian Gazpacho [PC]
Tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded, and diced
cucumber, diced
green pepper, diced
Do these 3 in a 8:1:1 ratio, respectively
Combine with:
red wine vinegar (about 1/3 cup per 2 lbs tomatoes)
twice as much olive oil
s/p
combine all and refrigerate overnight
Puree the next day and garnish with small dice vegetables (tom, cucumber, green pepper) to serve.
I also added a little texas pete hot sauce to the puree cause gazpacho needs a little kick to it in my opinion.


And this is what a pouty little girl who needs to go to bed without dinner looks like.

1 comment:

  1. this has got to be my favorite post so far, apart from clark crying and hugging himself. the piece de resistance of course is eva's surly mug shot. thank you for such a lovely post after too many days of radio silence. i've been going through withdrawals.

    ReplyDelete