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!

Grilled Salmon with Olives over Italian Couscous Salad

The weather was gorgeous yesterday and I had a friend coming over for dinner. She and I both like fish but were not in the habit of cooking it because neither of our significant others would eat it. While pondering what should be on the menu, I realized that we don’t have to worry about what our significant others eat anymore… since they are now our ex-significant others. 🙂 Aha, I decided — fish it is!

I tend to default to salmon so I went to the market with the intent of maybe trying something new. I surveyed some halibut and took a gander at the mahi mahi but ultimately the fishmonger convinced me salmon was the way to go. I had some staples at the house that I thought I could whip up with it to make a decent little dish.

Now, my intent was to fire up my neglected Green Egg, pull out some maple planks I had in my grillin’ kit, and try my hand at plank cooking for the first time. Unfortunately, I failed to check out all of my equipment early in the day and, when game time rolled around, I realized my planks had been exposed to moisture somehow and had mildew spots. I was betting that mildew would not complement the salmon, so I tossed them in the woodpile and decided to go with a super simple grilled salmon recipe courtesy of a fellow foodie named Mike.

Easy Grilled Salmon

Rinse salmon, pat dry, and return to refrigerator uncovered to dry a bit. Pull out a nice sized piece of heavy duty aluminum foil (just a bit bigger than your salmon) and coat it with cooking spray. Place the salmon skin side down and on the foil and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle salt, ground pepper, onion powder and garlic powder on top.

This was taken with my iPhone since I had also forgotten to charge my camera.

Heat your grill up on high to 400 degrees and then adjust down to maintain that temperature. Place foil with salmon directly on the grill and check after 10 minutes. Cooking time should be somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. Remove when it looks and feels done (flaky on the edges but still a bit moist in the center) and let it rest for 5 minutes before plating it up. When ready, just run a knife underneath to separate the skin and cut into individual portion sizes. While the salmon cooks and rests, you can whip up your…

Italian Couscous Salad (Serves 6)

Boil 2 cups of pearl (also called Israeli) couscous as directed on packaging. Here’s what it looks like in the store…

While couscous is still hot, add one cup each chopped sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts (both packed in oil and drained.) Stir in 1/3-cup pine nuts and 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese. Season with 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, salt, and ground pepper. Taste and adjust any of the mix-ins until you are happy.

Darn the blurriness!

Put a big scoop of couscous salad on each plate, top with a serving of grilled salmon, and spread a little olive salad on top like so…

I gotta say, it turned out pretty well — better than many a salmon dish I have been served in restaurants. Better yet, I flaked the leftover salmon, added it to the leftover couscous salad, and had some most excellent lunches to take to work this week.

Easy, quick, and pretty healthy to boot — give it a spin, y’all.