Recipe: Apple / Sesame Tilapia

AKA:  I Love Grilling! 

by Renwick Miller

04/27/2013

This one is tasty, quick, and currently residing in my belly, so I thought I'd take the time to pen the recipe before succumbing to the food coma.

It looks like spring may finally be taking hold in Chicago, so I took the camera out for a walk.  After an hour or two of  random point and shoot, I realized I was hungry.  Spring weather always makes me want to fire up the grill, and my first thought was of the 2-3 lb bag of chicken parts I'd thawed for this purpose.  

"But chicken takes so long when you smoke it...  I'm hungry NOW.  OH, wait!  There's that tilapia in the fridge!"

It's been nearly three weeks since the last shopping trip, and I REALLY don't feel like going to the store, so we're working with what we've got.  Lesse... There's;

4 medium sized tilapia filets

1 small yellow onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed. 

1 small apple (don't know what sort), sliced or diced.

About 1 cup of tahini

Salt

Black pepper

Garlic powder
Paprika

1/2 to 1 cup of water.

***NOTE:  The prep designations above (sliced, diced, chopped), like most anytime I write about cooking, are just suggestions.  If you'd prefer diced to sliced, or think pureed in a food processor might lend you better results, have at it.  I'm just writing out what I've done, and if you can improve, please do!  And share your secret if you like the results.  Don't be stingy.***

First, you open a beer and start the grill up.  This would work just as well in the oven, but I'm really fond of the smoke flavor that comes from a nice, low wood fire.  My method is to let a few decent sized pieces of wood burn down to coals.  That's my source for the heat, and the next bits of wood to go on get added just before placing the dish and closing the grill, so if they ignite there's not much fire, but plenty of smoke.  

While the fire's making coals for me, I pop back into the kitchen and start food prep.  Grab yourself a grill safe pan large enough to hold everything and add about half the tahini, onion, garlic and apple, adding pepper to taste.  

From here I added the fish and mildly salted it, sprinkled on the rest of the dried spices, and repeated our tahini, onion, apple, garlic exercise and poured it on top.

By now the grill should be ready, assuming you or someone else has been tending it.  EXCELLENT!  I tossed my batch (in the pan) on the grill for about 35 minutes or so.  Here's where the water comes in;  Keep an eye on things.  Check at the 10 minute mark or so and see how the moisture content is.  Not only do you not want things to burn, but you can control how intense or subtle the apple / sesame combination permeates the fish by how much water you add.  The more dilute the mixture, the subtler the flavor, of course.  If you prefer intense flavor, you'll need to REALLY keep an eye on things, adding small amounts of water every so often.  I'd say a couple ounces at a time.  


Lazy as I am, I'd normally suggest just adding all the water and letting it cook down, but we're not working with red meat, poultry, or even salmon here.  It's a whitefish.  Too much water and time and you'll either wind up with rubber or soup.  Besides which, I kinda enjoy hovering over the grill.  "MAN... FOOD...  FIRE!"  

Hand me a beer, would'ja?

Time's up?  Enjoy!  Pull the pan off the fire and serve.  As pictured, tonight's dinner came with rice and peas. I like to spoon a bit of the tahini sauce over the top of it all, have a bite of fish, rice and smoky apple and wonder what the hell made me think the oven would've been a good idea.