This whole meal was great for having company, because there's a lot of prep work that can be taken care of in advance. Although the recipe for the fish only calls for marinading it for about a half an hour, I made it much earlier in the day and let it marinade for about five hours. The marinade is a combination of garlic, EVOO, fresh lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes, cumin, parsley, thyme, and black pepper, all mixed together. This is painted on the tuna steaks (or whatever fish you want) with the rest reserved for later. I stuck the marinated fish on a plate covered in aluminum foil in the fridge until about half an hour before we were ready to grill it.
This goes on the grill for about three minutes per side, or more if you want it to be well done.
We had leftover Mhammara from a couple of days ago, which is supposed to go well with fish, but I wanted to make another side for tuna as well. Salsa Verde is an Italian Green Sauce for Fish or Meat, and is another super quick preparation.
Like Mhammara, this has a walnut base, but this time the walnuts need to toasted in the oven for about seven minutes. While these were in the oven, I put parsley, basil, garlic, cornichons and the yolk of a hard-boiled egg into the food processor. Once the walnuts were toasted, I rolled them in a dishtowel to remove some of the tannic skins and then threw them in as well. The ingredients are processed together until everything is finely chopped. While they were still being mixed, I slowly added olive oil and then red wine vinegar. A little salt and pepper later, and the sauce is ready to be set aside for the fish. (Actually, we didn't set it aside. We dipped cucumbers and carrots into it, and finished off a ton of it before the fish was even ready.)
Lastly, I prepared Sautéed Squash with a Chermoula Sauce. I made the chermoula first, by stirring together garlic, minced cilantro and parsley, salt, paprika, cumin, olive oil, and lemon juice.
The squash itself is sliced lengthwise with the seeds and fibers removed, then peeled and sliced into segments and added to olive oil to sauté.
Once these are browned (this takes a while), remove them from the heat and mix with the chermoula. This dish is served at room temperature after marinating for about half an hour.
Pretty much everything we ate tonight was awesome. Matt did a great job of grilling the fish, and it turned out beautifully.
It was simply prepared, but really delicious. It was also really great with the sauces that we had on the table, including the leftovers of the marinade that it had been cooked in, heated over the stove.
Lastly, the squash was great. I'm not a huge squash fan, but I liked that this was served at room temperature and had a lot of flavor from the chermoula.
So, yum to the entire meal. So good. And, since they're so good at them, Matt, Sarah, and Blair posed for another awkward family picture.
tuna -- $20.55 (the fish dude talked me into getting more than I needed, and I don't want to talk about it)
lemon -- $.69
garlic -- $1.00
Total Cost for Grilled Fish: $22.24
cornichons: 4.99 (with tons and tons left)
Total Cost for Salsa Verde: 4.99
cilantro -- $1.99
squash -- $2.20 (CSA cost)
lemon -- $.42
Total Cost for Sautéed Squash with a Chermoula Sauce: $4.61
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Thanks for dropping by! Love, Katrina.