Receta Watermelon Salsa Two Ways: In Fish Tacos and Swordfish Salad
For the last few summers, one of our salads of choice has
been the Watermelon and Tomato rendition first published here in July 2010: http://www.chewingthefat.us.com/2010/07/watermelon-and-tomato-salad.html. Nothing says 'cool off' like watermelon and
this salad combines the sweetness of the fruit with the tang of ripe tomatoes,
a jolt of red onion and a splash of red wine vinegar. It’s a perfect accompaniment to almost
anything grilled, truly a dish that has summer written all over it. So when I spotted a recipe for Fish Tacos
with Watermelon Salsa, I couldn’t wait to try it.
I love a good fish taco and this recipe gives you a filling
that is ideal for a hot weather
meal. It’s also one of those things that
you can feel holier-than-thou about
because it’s just so healthy—the fish, the fruits,
the avocado—and it’s a meal in itself that weighs in at just 437 calories per
serving. That’s three tacos. If it has any drawbacks at all, it’s kind of
messy. The filling spills out of the
tacos and you should hold them over the
plate or you could end up with a lapful.
That’s when Andrew weighed in and suggested that the dish would make a
wonderful salad without the taco at all.
For those of you still zealously counting carbs, that would cut out 45
grams right away. So I set out to adapt
it with one of our all-time favorite fish, swordfish.
This dense Atlantic fish is caught
right off Long Island. Several years
ago, Atlantic Swordfish was reported as threatened. But after just a few years in quota
management, Swordfish is thriving, replenishing its species stocks to a
sustainable level. So as long as Fisherman are kept to the current limit of
harvest, and the species reproduces quickly enough so that their numbers will
not deplete, you can eat swordfish with impunity. That is with one major caveat. Because of its size, swordfish contain more
mercury than smaller fish. So women who are pregnant or want to get pregnant
should avoid the fish. Small children
similarly should not eat it more than once a month. But the most interesting news is that food
scientists now believe that the mercury in fish is distinctive from the
poisonous mercury which with we’ve lumped it together. Stay tuned.
One of my all-time favorite ways of
cooking swordfish is to blacken it with a coating of seasonings combined just
for that purpose. Since the fish in the fish tacos were seasoned with chipotle
chili powder, it was no stretch to imagine the blackened swordfish adding
mightily to the flavor of our salad. The
master of blackening is unquestionably Paul Prudhomme, the Louisiana native who
first brought Cajun cooking to our attention in the early 80s.
His “Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen” (Morrow 1984) was a revelation
in the flavors of the Gult of Mexico and the whole Cajun and Creole cooking of
Southern Louisiana. So before you even
start making the salad, you can use his recipe for Blackening. You may want to double or triple these
quantities because the mixture will keep forever and I am fairly sure you will
- want to cook both this dish and blackened swordfish again. Or you can, without
- any question, buy Chef Prudhomme’s (or any number of his competitors’ ) recipe
- in the supermarket spice aisle. Here’s
- the recipe for making your own:
- Recipe for Paul Prudhomme’s Seasoning Mix for Blackening:
- 3⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 3⁄4 tsp. freshly ground white pepper
- 6 1⁄2"-thick 8-oz. skinless, boneless red drum, black
- drum, or red snapper filets
- 1. Combine paprika,
- salt, onion and garlic powders, cayenne, black and white pepper, thyme, and
- oregano in a small bowl and set aside.
- Now you’re ready to start cooking. The only difference between the recipe as a Taco filling and the
- recipe as a main course salad is in the
- selection of fish and their preparation.
- Everything else remains the same.
- Of course in the Salad recipe you switch out the taco for a bed of fresh lettuce. Here’s the recipe:
- 4 cups diced seedless
- watermelon
- 1/2 small red onion,
- finely diced
- 1/2 cup roughly
- chopped fresh cilantro
- Juice of 2 limes, plus
- lime wedges for serving
- 1 jalapeno pepper,
- seeded and finely diced
- 1 tablespoon plus 2
- teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 1 romaine lettuce
- heart, thinly sliced
- 1 pound skinless wild
- striped bass fillets
- 1 teaspoon chipotle
- chile powder
- For the Blackened Swordfish Salad:
- 1 ½ lbs of swordfish
steaks, ¾ to 1 inch thick.
1 recipe Paul Prudhomme’s Blackening Seasoning Mix
½ stick melted butter
Salad Greens to use as a bed for your salad.
First make the
watermelon salsa:
Combine the watermelon, red onion,
cilantro, lime juice and jalapeno in
a bowl. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt and set aside.
To make the Fish
Tacos:
Preheat a grill or grill pan to high.
Sprinkle the fish on both sides with the
chile powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt; drizzle both sides with the remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil. Brush
the grill with olive oil, then add the
fish and grill until marked and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer the fish to a plate and break
into bite-size pieces.
Meanwhile, toss the lettuce with 2
tablespoons of the juices from the watermelon
salsa and a pinch of salt. Warm the tortillas on the grill and fill with the fish, watermelon salsa,
avocado and lettuce. Serve with lime
wedges.
To make the Swordfish
Salad:
The key to blackened fish is a smoking hot pan
Heat a large cast-iron skillet over very
high heat until it is beyond the smoking
stage at least ten minutes. (The skillet
cannot be too hot for this dish)
While the pan is heating, melt the butter. Put the seasoning mix on a plate to cover. Dip the swordfish in the butter so that both
sides are well coated. Then generously coat the fish with the
seasoning mixture. Place the fish
in the hot skillet and cook, uncovered until the underside looks charred, about 3-4 minutes depending on
thickness of the swordfish and the heat
of the skillet. Turn the fish over, cook another two minutes. Check for doneness by cutting into the
fish. It should be cooked through.
Set
aside the fish and when cooled, cut it into 1 inch squares and toss with the watermelon salsa. Plate the salad atop lettuce leaves. I served
this with toasted herbed pita bread.
Serves 4.