What? Did you think I was going to announce I was with child again or something? No.
I ate the First Tomato last night, with a little bit of salt. And I was once again struck anew, as I always am by the First Tomato after months and months of no tomatoes, how incredibly complexly flavored and delicious a tomato is. I am not, of course, speaking of those sad imitation tomatoes in the grocery store. But a real tomato? Simply amazing.
And now on to the fish.
A. went out fishing with two of his cousins on a charter boat the other day. The captain of this charter boat is the same guy who used to take A. and his brother and dad out when the boys were young. These were very exciting and much-anticipated excursions, and A. was pretty stoked to find that the captain still does this.
A. and his cousins are all good fishermen, and of course the captain knows just where to go, since he's been doing this now for, oh, twenty years or so. The result was a LOT of lake trout. Part of the charter service is filleting the fish and, apparently, advice on how to cook them. Advice that A. duly passed on to me and that I followed last night.
So here's how to grill fish without an annoying and hard-to-clean grill basket: Leave the skin on. This is the most important part. The flesh side is brushed with oil and whatever seasoning you want and just laid on the hot grill for a minute to get some grill marks. Then, before it has a chance to stick, flip it to the skin side and leave it there until it's done. When it's cooked, you can just pull the meat up off the skin, which will stick just enough to stay on the grill when the flesh is separated. The skin will then come right off the grill, too. I thought it would stick and be horrible on the grill, but it came right off and the dogs very much enjoyed that crunchy little treat.
So there you have it. The captain's fish, straight from the lake to you.
Now if only I could bring myself to eat fish.
ReplyDeleteMmmmm.
ReplyDeleteWe have always used the Captain's method for salmon, seasoned with a liberal amount of black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a touch of seafood seasoning (mainly salt). Grill marks seem superfluous, however.
ReplyDeleteFor an added flavor twist, one can put a few sticks of green alder on the charcoal bed to obtain more of a smoked fish flavor.
so jealous of your tomatoes. and confused. I'm in SW Missouri and my cherry tomatoes are just now starting to blush. I'm thinking I need to get some sheep shit straw - think my city neighbors would mind?
ReplyDeleteI cheated last week and bought some Amish tomatoes at the farmer's market because I couldn't wait any longer!
Congratulations on your first tomato. It seems that I can never get enough tomato sandwiches this time of year. Not to mention sliced tomatoes with creamed corn or stewed squash. I cannot believe you are just getting your first tomato. My plants are starting to die. Not too many more tomatoes for me.
ReplyDeleteJust had our #1 tomato, too. Bigger than Christmas this event.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm totally going to follow these trout grilling instructions for any and all trout that I catch during my fishing trip in August. And there better be A LOT.