Hot off the tasty success of last week's achiote experiment, we decided to go for round two with a completely different cast: Fish and Chicken. We were also heading up to the cottage for this one so we knew we could get some real grilling done. No more faking it under the broiler!
So fill your propane tanks and stock your cupboards with achiote as we dive into Grilled Fish (and Chicken) in Tangy Yucatecan Achiote with Green Beans (plus Chayote and Asparagus) and Rustic Roasted Tomato Salsa.
And this is of course how anything rustic starts: a cast iron frying pan. And black spots.
Once again, I like to whiz my other salsa ingredients prior to adding the tomatoes. Some diced white onion and cilantro goes into this after whizzing. A tip of Rick's is to rinse the onion after you dice it but before you add it to anything. It helps cut down on the onion aftertaste.
Achiote and lime. This recipe used more achiote and less lime, so it was a bit more paste like. We were able to paint it on the meat so it could marinate. Now this is where it gets sloppy. My better half doesn't eat a whole lot of fish, which means that we don't buy a whole lot of fish. And when you're not used to buying fish, the choices can be pretty daunting. Rick recommends 7 different fish for this recipe: bluefish, kingfish, mackerel, striped bass, halibut, mahimahi, tuna or salmon. We wanted something that wasn't going to be too 'full-flavoured', something that wasn't too expensive, and something that we could grill.
Halibut was looking good until we saw the price. We knew that this dinner was for seven and didn't want to break the bank so in the end we went with haddock. The frozen fillets were virtually the same price as the fresh ones and because we were still two days out from dinner, decided that frozen would be the way to go. The package had guidelines for grilling, so that was also a good sign.
Now the problem with grilling instructions is that they only work when you follow them. So when it tells you to make a little tin-foil bag for your piece of haddock, you should do it. Laying it right on the grill is not something I'd recommend to others or do again myself. But I figured, what the hey, you only live once, and who doesn't love grill marks. Haddock isn't necessarily fragile, but it's not a 'sturdy' piece of meat either. The chicken did a little better. Maybe we'll stick to our broiler, less meat goes missing.
Those beauties are from Sur La Table. And man do they work well. No more rolling asparagus.
The chayote and green beans got the basket treatment. I don't mind my veggies a little crisp, but the chayote probably could have been cut down a little more in thickness.
Okay, all together now: Guacamole and chips, grilled haddock in achiote, asparagus, green beans, rustic roasted tomato salsa, chayote. 8 haddock fillets and 4 large chicken breasts were a very good estimate for 7 people. The nice thing about this dinner, like most from Mexican Everyday, is that it was super easy. You have to make sure everything is ready to hit the grill, but as long as you can follow the minute hand on a watch, everything works out pretty well.
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