Monday, December 24, 2012

Cajun swordfish ... well, fish anyway



A little while ago, we went up to The House for a long weekend and The Boy decided that he wanted to do some cooking (all on his own) and he had a craving for Cajun swordfish.

The House is situated in the country and while we are near a small town, conveniently located only a few minutes from where we are, seafood choices are limited.

We headed into the grocery store (there was no fish shop to be had) and found some salmon, basa and assorted white fish in the deli section but no swordfish.

We made do with what we had and made up our version of Cajun fish (minus the "sword"!).

The Boy found a recipe online that he used to mix up the Cajun flavors which were zingy and yummy.

Here's the RECIPE:

Ingredients:
  • 1 tbs / 15ml lime or lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 swordfish, halibut or salmon steaks (750g in total)

Instructions:
  • In a small bowl, whisk together lime or lemon juice, 2 tsp water and all the other dry ingredients listed.
  • Rub the mixture gently onto both sides of the fish.
  • Place on foil lined baking sheet, roast in oven at 180dC for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.

The Boy followed the instructions exactly for the spice mixture and we bought some salmon and some Basa fillets which we seasoned to cook.


Instead of cooking the fish in the oven, we placed a foil sheet over a small BBQ and cooked the fish on the BBQ. After the fish was cooked (but still moist), we then took it off the foil sheet and quickly seared the fish on the BBQ to give it a smoky flavor and seal in the spices.

This mixture turned out to be spicy and delicious. I enjoyed the Basa fillets more because I think the Basa allowed more of the spices to come through and really come into its own. The salmon while a lovely fish (and I love my salmon raw) was too flavorsome a fish on its own and I thought that the spice flavors were somewhat in conflict with the fish itself, each competing for dominance.

I think in general, with such a spicy mix for the fish, something like a Basa, swordfish or something similar (as I put it, a white fish rather than a colored fish, ie., salmon, tuna, etc.) would be better to allow the Cajun flavors to come through and not compete with the flavor of the fish.



This was delicious and we're up at The House soon again. I'm going to ask The Boy to make this for me again. I really enjoyed it.

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