Grilled Miso Seabass and Baby Bok Choy

We had a veritable August cold front here this week — highs merely in the low 90’s — and so I felt like heating up the grill for the first time in ages. (It was the gas grill but — Big Green Egg fans, don’t despair — I do plan to share some BGE recipes soon.) I spent the past week eating my way through Portland (Pok Pok = nomnom!) and so something on the healthy side seemed in order. Since I am a sucker for petite vegetables, I purchased some baby bok choy and went to check out the fish counter, where I settled on some Corvina seabass. I later learned that this is an over fished species (my environmental bad) so I would recommend Branzino, Barramundi, or any mild whitefish. I had eaten miso-glazed fish in restaurants before and decided to put to use some brown miso hanging out in the back of my fridge for both the seabass and the bok choy. The results were tasty and made for a light yet satisfying dinner.

Grilled Miso Seabass and Baby Bok Choy

Ingredients

• 1.25 lbs seabass or other mild whitefish
• 4 small bok choy, halved and leafy ends trimmed
• 1/3 cup miso
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup mirin (I used Riesling instead but you can also use white with a little sugar mixed in)

Directions

Mix miso, brown sugar, sesame oil, and mirin/wine in a small bowl. Arrange the bok choy on a plate and baste generously with the miso glaze.

Arrange 3-4 sheets of heavy duty foil (slightly larger than your fish fillets) on top of each other and crimp the edges. Spray with oil and lay your fish on top. Baste with remainder of miso glaze.

Heat your grill up in two zones — one zone should be medium-high and the other low-medium. When the overall grill temp is near 400 degrees, place the aluminum foil with the fish on the hotter area of the grill and the baby bok choy (cut side down) directly on the cooler area of the grill.

After six minutes, flip the baby bok choy. Six more minutes, and both the fish and bok choy should be cooked and ready to remove from the grill. Allow to rest for a few minutes.

I served the fish and bok choy over a stir fry of brown rice, quinoa, and vegetables but you could use your favorite rice. (I almost always cheat with a little Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice.) Doesn’t it look purty?

All in, this is a quick and healthy meal that you can have on the table in 20 minutes. Perfect for the more hectic fall days ahead!

Easy Homemade BBQ Sauce

I was looking to cook some boneless beef ribs the other evening and thought I would give my great-grandma’s recipe a spin. (Well, the version my Dad relayed to me one night after a couple of margaritas.) But, alas, I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand. I was also out of bottled bbq sauce. You can see the level of planning that was going into this enterprise, can’t ya? I figured I would just whip up some homemade sauce and cook the ribs in a pan on my Big Green Egg. I was in the mood to take it easy, as the Eagles would say.

Well, the ribs turned out just meh — nothing to write home about. But the sauce rocked. Like, I’m-gonna-go-get-more-and-sop-it-up-with-some-bread good. So here, sweetie, is the easy recipe…

Homemade BBQ Sauce

Mix together: 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp molasses, 1 tbsp yellow mustard, and 1 tbsp garlic powder.

Use in place of bottled bbq sauce in your favorite recipes and be prepared for some praise. You deserve it.