Damn Good Friday

Between Fridays in Lent and The Diet, all I freaking want is a cheeseburger or steak.  But that is what tomorrow is for.  In the meantime, I had to jockey for position with the rest of the Catholics at the fish market after school today.  Last night I had picked out the Rockfish With Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Sauce on page 292.  The fishmonger at Hyde Park Fish Market stated that he had heard of Rockfish before, but since it was a Pacific Ocean fish, they didn't see too many here in eastern part of the Midwest.  In fact, we are only about 600 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, so a Pacific fish is pretty rare around here.  The Guide suggests both halibut and sea bass as alternates, and I inquired which he would recommend, as they were only one dollar a pound in difference.  He immediately suggested the sea bass, as halibut has just come into season, and just wasn't as nice as the sea bass.  I purchased three-quarters of a pound (which experience has taught me is a nice serving for The Bride and me) and went on my merry way.  

While waiting for the coals, I started the sauce.  The recipe calls for me to use a food processor, but there was so little (volume-wise) that I didn't think the food processor would do a good job.  Instead, I chose to use the immersion blender.  I began by putting in the easy ingredients.

Learning from an earlier entry, and following the same technique,  I placed the rub ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

I stirred the rub, and then oiled up this BEAUTIFUL piece of fish.

Using the oil as an adhesive, I dipped the fish into the rub.  Whatever would stick would be the right amount.

I then rotated to cover three out of the four sides.  The skin, as it would be removed later, would not need the rub.

Here is the fish, ready for the grill!

With the red pepper on The Forge, I brought together what I would need for the side this evening, the White Bean Bruschetta on page 80.

For this, I started by cutting up the bread.

The red bell pepper came off the grill, and as you may have seen me do a couple of times now, I covered the bowl in saran wrap in order to let the steam help remove the skin, which would not fare well in the sauce.

 

Another tip that I have learned: when toasting any kind of bread, offer up a "sacrificial lamb" to the Grill Gods to get your timing down.  Instead of foolishly placing all of the bread pieces willy-nilly on the grill, find the zone you wish to cook on, and only put one piece down that you aren't too concerned about, so that if it burns you don't freak out.  Weber suggests cooking the slices two to three minutes, flipping once.  According to my math, that is one to one-and-a-half minutes per side of toast.  In the picture below, the piece at the top-left is the piece that I followed these directions.  Clearly, this was way too long for what I was running The Forge at today.  Working clockwise, you can see the pieces as I adjusted the cooking time and found a sweet spot on the grill.

For the topping, you begin by warming up your oil and red pepper flakes.

Add in the onion and cook until soft.

Add the garlic and sage, and only cook for a minute.  Minced garlic burns super easily, and you just need to make it fragrant.

Finally, add in the beans and red wine vinegar.  Stir until awesome.

Meanwhile, the skin had loosened on the bell pepper, so I removed it.  It looked gorgeous.

I only applied a rough chop to the bell pepper, as the immersion blender would take it from there.

At this time, the fish was ready.  It came apart a little bit while pulling it from the grill, but hey, that is what the sauce is for.

After a brief whir, the sauce was ready!

Plate the fish, top the toast, sauce the fish, and you now have an amazing dinner.

It is official.  This is The Bride's second favorite fish dish, only finishing behind that Oak Grilled Salmon that we've had a number of times now.   I find it interesting that her two favorite fish dishes use fresh dill in the rub.  I'll admit, it was pretty darned good.  It tasted like melted butter, yet I never brought butter near the thing.  The sauce was perfect, and will be seen again.  There was texture, salt, seasoning, melt-in-your-mouth flakiness, etc.  This fish had it all.  If I owe somebody a nice dinner, this could be in the cards.  If I can't have steak, I may as well have this.  As for the bruschetta, it was good.  It wasn't terrific, but it was good.  I did find a way to make it better, but more on that later.  In summation, I may have a Top Ten of 2011 dish in the making with the fish.  Now if only I could find some Pacific Rockish so that I could try the real recipe...

Hey, ever sat there and wondered, "Gee, I want to shower my favorite Corey with some sort of gift, but I just don't know what to get him?  I know he likes wine, but what does he like?"  Well, in short, if it's French, I probably like it.  If you can find a Chapoutier, all the better.  It's easily recognizable by the Braille on the label.   I found this one for about twelve bucks (it doesn't have to be expensive at all), and it was perfect with tonight's dinner.  As I am on The Diet, I don't get wine with dinner as much, as I am limited to alcohol only once a week. 

Dinner was great, and I found a way to make the bruschetta better...put down a layer of the roasted bell pepper and garlic sauce.  "It really tied the room together."

Later, The Bride kicked it up a notch and added some feta and melted in the microwave.  As the Greeks say, "OPAH!"