Cookin' With Pursuit

Well I was going to wine blog tonight, but today was just one of those days.......I'm going straight to the hard stuff!

In my never ending quest to feed the beast though, I did want to post tonight, and I've got so much on my mind I don't know exactly what to blog about. Mexico suing the U.S.? Mocking the leftys over their fear of religious folk, and even making a new name up for it? How about the ongoing hope on the left that Karl Rove has been indicted? Oh I'm primed for any one of these folks but the.....ideas.....just.....keep.......coming........to........fast........can't.......take.........it!

So, I'm going to rest those things and return to one of my true loves: Food.

You see, this past Mothers Day I hit for the cycle baby; Grilled Sword Fish in Alder Smoke with a Roast Tomato/Chipotle Salsa, Grilled vegetables and Polenta. I'm not lying when I say the family vibrated with glee while consuming this meal. Wanna do it yourself? Here's how:

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs Swordfish steaks
Alderwood chips (if you don't have alder use a light smoke wood)
Any kind of slightly spicy fish rub.

Three tomatoes
Four cloves of garlic unpeeled
1 can of chipotles en adobo

Two red peppers
One Vadalia onion

1 C Yellow cornmeal
20 0z chicken broth
20 oz water
(these two liquid measures are approximate, make the polenta so that it is like pudding)

Here we go.

30 minutes before you do anything take fish out of the fridge and apply olive oil with a brush on both sides and then rub (lightly) on both sides. Also begin to soak the wood chips in water. Turn broiler on

When broiler is hot put tomatos in and roast until one side is black and then turn over and do the other side. When done remove from oven and let cool. While tomatoes are broiling roast garlic on the stove top until partially black on a couple sides and nice and soft. Remove, cool and peel. Peel tomatoes. Put the peeled tomatoes and their roasting juices in a Cuisanart and pulse until smooth. Throw in garlic and let 'er rip until smooth. Throw in on Chipotle and two tablespoons of adobo sauce and let 'er rip again until smooth. Pour sauce into a pan and cook until it darkens and thickens to a sauce consistency about 10 minutes, add salt to taste. Careful! It's spicy.

Light charcoal (use gas and I disown you)

While Charcoal is getting ready, combine water and broth and heat on stove to just shy of boiling. Don't let bubbles form. Maintain at this temp.

When charcoal is ready put it all on one side of the grill, and coat the pepper and onion mixture with olive oil and kosher salt. Place on non-coal side of grill and roast until soft and slightly charred on the sides; about 15 minutes. Remove, cover, and store in warm place.

Take swordfish steaks and put on the coal side of the grill for 1 to 1.5 minutes. Just long enough to get grill marks. Flip to other side. Do not cook the fish in this step, you just want to color it a little.

Next move the fish to the non-coal side, throw the wood chips on the coals and cover the grill. I left them in for 15 minutes which I thought would be way too long, so you might want to go less, but they were just losing the pink in the middle when I pulled them so be your own judge.

While fish is roasting in that wonderful, wonderful smoke, go inside, fire the water/broth up to a boil (you may want to do this before you put the fish on so its boiling when you return) and drop the cornmeal in when it is boiling. Pour evenly and slowly wisking constantly so that you don't get lumps and cook. If it gets too thick add more water, slowly. Cook for about 5 minutes and turn off when you get the right consistency. Cover.

Go out, remove the fish.

Plate the fish on individual plates. Surround each serving with a 1/2 inch ribbon of the sauce, put the polenta to one side and then cover each serving of fish with some roast vegetables. Serve with some crusty bread and a hearty white wine and you've got a meal.

Note: Not the real picture of mine above. Mine looked better.