Category Archives: Grill

GRILLED BLUEFISH AGRODOLCE

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Bluefish Agrodolce-1

 

Okay, I admit it–I love fishy fish.  You can keep catfish, but once that’s off the table, I’ll eat everything else.  Bring on the sea urchin roe, mackeral, fresh sardines and all swimming things smoked and pickled.  All grand.  But if I were Neptune, sitting at my right hand, way above the salt, would be bluefish.  This week we’re serving Bluefish Agrodolce, an easy easy easy dish.  And when you’ve gotten agrodolce, a quick sweet-sour sauce, well in hand you can serve it with just about any kind of seafood with a bit of gumption.  Welcome aboard.

LAZY MAN’S FAVA BEAN SALAD WITH SPRING GREENS AND PECORINO

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Lazy Man's Fava Salad-9496

 

Two words almost never seen paired together: quick and favas.  Yet, both apply to this week’s Lazy Man’s Fava Bean Salad with Spring Greens and Pecorino.  In retrospect, we might have called it Romantic Man’s (or Woman’s) Fava Bean Salad because it’s just the sort of thing that two people comfortable with bumping hips in a kitchen can make together for their own romantic lunch.  The salad makes 4 servings, but these can be stretched if you’re serving it as a starter to, say, grilled lamb or fish.

Duck, Duck, Peach!

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Grilled Duck Breast with Peaches-8494

 

Menus from proximate restaurants in rural France can seem eerily similar, as though all aligned along the same invisible lines of culinary force emanating from the specialties of the region. This restaurant has fois gras; that restaurant has fois gras. This restaurant offers grilled duck breast; that restaurant offers grilled duck breast. Whether you find this state of affairs delightful or vexing depends on your perspective.  If I were living in the same village for several months then menu similarity might start to get tedious, but in the Sud-Ouest, that lower left corner of France heading toward Spain, I had no problem with encountering a familiar selection of fois gras, duck and rabbit, accompanied by eggplant and tomatoes, not to mention the incredible local dessert pastry, Pastis de Quercy, the subject of a future post.  I enjoy fois gras, but I love duck.  For me, duck has more there there than any other animal protein.  I’d give up beef in two quacks if I had to choose between it and duck.  Legs, breast, liver – no matter.  It’s all great to me.  You can make up your own mind with our Grilled Duck with Peaches entrée this week.  You can also eliminate the potentially irksome challenge of cooking duck inside, dealing with the fat.  We cook it outside.  On the grill.