Because of the nice weather, I’ve been using my grill a lot lately. I thought I’d share recipes for Garlic Halibut and Zucchini below, as they turned out really well:
The halibut is basically an Asian preparation. It’s slightly sweet with a rich but mellow flavor of ginger, garlic, sesame and soy. Even Jonathan really liked it.
The zucchini was just briefly marinated in Montréal Steak Seasoning and olive oil and grilled in the basket along with the fish, then grilled a couple more minutes on the grates to get grill marks.
Garlic Halibut
(from Steve Raichlen’s How to Grill; I’ve halved his recipe)
Serves 2–3
1 lb halibut
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 t. peeled, coarsely grated ginger
1 TB. minced cilantro
1 1/2 TB. sugar
2 TB. fish sauce or soy sauce
1 1/2 TB. sake, rice wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 TB. dark sesame oil (optional, but very good)
1/2 t. coarse salt
1/2 t. freshly grated black pepper
1. Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towels. Arrange in a dish just large enough to hold the fish.
2. Prepare the marinade: Pound the garlic, ginger, cilantro leaves and sugar to a paste using a mortal and pestle (preferable, and fun) or purée in a mini-chopper. Work in remaining ingredients. Marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. Set up your grill for direct grilling. I like to use charcoal and a chimney starter, with the newspaper lightly drizzled with vegetable oil (a technique I got from Alton Brown). You can also set your gas grill to high.
4. Place the fish in a fish basket (preferable) coated in cooking spray, or directly on a well-oiled grill grate. Grill for 4–6 minutes per side, until browned and firm.
Raichlen says that this preparation also works well with salmon, bluefish or sea bass. The important thing, I’d think, would be getting a type of fish that is fairly firm. We got our halibut at Costco.
I can’t recommend Raichlen’s How to Grill highly enough. In addition to a lot of very good recipes, he also teaches you a lot of useful grilling techniches.
I’d probably go easier on the Montréal Steak seasoning for the zucchini next time, as it was a bit strong, but they did have a good flavor. Fresh garlic, salt, pepper and oregano would make a good alternative.
Both of these work well with rice.
Yum! Where did you get your halibut?
From Costco, it was only $13 a pound or something like that, and not frozen. It was really quite good, no fishy taste.