Grilled Fish Steaks and Fillets

From the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis

Introduction

Food cooked over an open fire or on an outdoor grill is often more memorable than the same food cooked indoors. The sweet, gentle flavor of really fresh fish marries beautifully with the smoke produced by grilling it (cooking over hot coals or lava rocks). Grilling is our favorite method of cooking fish steaks and fillets and most often we serve them unsauced. Good candidates for the grill include salmon, tuna, marlin, swordfish, sturgeon, halibut, ling cod, and shark, among others. Steaks, by the way, are cut across the bone; fillets are cut parallel to the bone and skin.

Ingredients

	¼ to ½	lb. fresh fish steaks or fillets (¾ inch to 1 inch thick), per person
	2	tsp. olive oil or vegetable oil, for each piece of fish (approximately)
	~	Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Steps

1. Build a charcoal fire in your usual way or preheat your gas grill. When the coals are covered in a fine, white ash, spread them in a single layer. Rub a little oil over both sides of the fish. (Fillets may be cooked with skin on or off; we usually cook them with the skin on, as it is easily removed after cooking.)
2. Place fish on the cooking grid, season with salt and pepper, and clap the ventilated lid on the grill to trap the smoke.
3. Total cooking time will approximate 10 minutes per inch of thickness. Turn steaks in half this time. You may turn fillets, or, if they are not several inches thick, just cook on the skin side until done. This helps avoid broken-up fillets caused by turning. Check doneness using an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the fish. We like ours quite
4. moist and pull it off the grill at 120°F. If you prefer your fish a little drier, with a bit more chew, wait for 140°F.

Notes

• Each brand of grill is different in shape and construction. Better, more expensive brands have flatter, more closely spaced cooking grids, which helps prevent small or flaky bits of food like fish from falling into the coals. Other brands have broader spaced, round wire cooking grids, which can make it difficult to cook softer fish varieties. If you own one of these, you can purchase a flat, perforated, porcelainized grid to lay over your regular cooking grid. It allows you to cook small items like shrimp or scallops, as well as soft-fleshed fish, with less loss to the fire.
• Fish can be marinated in all manner of mixtures before cooking. Try 2 tablespoons fresh lemon or lime juice mixed with 2 teaspoons soy sauce and 1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil. Marinate fish on both sides, totaling 20 to 30 minutes. Cook as above, skipping the oiling step and basting once on each side with the marinade.
• Brush fish with the following mixture before grilling: 1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard, 3 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil, a few grinds pepper, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon.

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