Into the Flames

Each month I will participate in a challenge with a handful of my blogging BBQ friends to incorporate the same four or five announced ingredients into a meal. The only rule is that the chosen protein must be cooked outdoors. It should be interesting to see all of their creative culinary interpretations based on the basket of ingredients each month. At the end of this post, below the gallery, you will find a brief description of their blogs and links to their great creations. Don’t miss them!

This month’s Ingredient Challenge was to create a meal featuring four components:

• Fish
• Couscous
• Figs
• Eggplant

These ingredients immediately brought the Mediterranean to mind. For inspiration, I took a stroll through our urban garden and a quick trip to my favorite fishmonger, Seafood Center on Clement in San Francisco. In the garden, the first of our figs on our new trees were ripe and our summer crop of lemons were ready for harvesting. At Seafood Center, the Sea Bream looked particularly fresh and the owner assured me that they would have a fresh-caught shipment of glassy-eyed Sea Bream in on Thursday morning in time for my planned cook.

With these ingredients in mind I set off to create my “Tour of the Mediterranean” menu. This conceptual tour starts at the northwest end of Mediterranean in the Valencia region of Spain, takes us to it’s far eastern end in Israel, and finishes in Tunisia in the South.

Valencia is well known for it’s fresh seafood, citrus and fruit groves and also for saffron accented dishes. In this spirit, I grilled the Sea Bream stuffed with fresh oranges and served it with a colorful and beautifully scented fig, orange, and saffron butter.

I have wonderful memories of long walks with my wife Recha through the olive groves of Northern Israel during a trip last fall where she had previously spent a year on a Kibbutz. The olives and olive oil of that region are amazing and with this inspiration I created an Oliveto Israeli Couscous dish. In Israel the couscous is extra large seminola flour pearls with a satisfying al dente texture. I flavored this couscous with a green olive, caper, and anchovy mix that I call “Oliveto”, and added additional texture and flavor with grilled cherry tomatoes and miniature fresh mozzarella balls.

Finally, I created a punchy grilled summer squash dish with Eggplant, colorful Zephyr squash, zucchini, and red peppers all flavored with the head-spinning Tunisian spice mix called harissa which is a spicy, fragrant blend packed full of piri piri peppers and earth spices such as caraway, coriander, and cumin seed.

This outdoor cook was a fun one on a beautiful sunny day. For cooking flexibility I built fires on both my large Big Green Egg ceramic cooker and my 26″ Weber one-touch gold.  When the fish and vegetables came off the grill I plated it all rustic family style on a single platter. The vibrant, fresh and earthy Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors were wonderful together. The fragrant fig, orange and saffron butter was simply amazing on top of the fresh and mild sea bream and I’m sure that we will find all kinds of new uses for that flavorful butter in our kitchen.

This themed Tour of the Mediterranean made us truly feel like we were having a festive meal celebrating the bounty of the sea and the summer season.

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Grilled Sea Bream with Fig, Orange, and Saffron Butter (Serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

• 2 large oranges, one zested and juiced and one sliced into thin round sections
• 4 Black Mission Figs, pink flesh spooned out of skins and chopped into paste
• 1/2 teaspoon champagne vinegar (can substitute apple cider vinegar)
• 1 pinch (about 0.2 grams) saffron threads crumbled
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• Coarse sea salt
• 1 whole sea bream, red snapper, or striped bass (about 1.5-2 pounds), gutted, cleaned, top fin cut off  (For a searchable sustainable fish database click HERE)
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray or grapeseed oil

Directions:

Fig, Orange and Saffron Butter (Can be made several days ahead)

1. Place 6 Tbs fresh orange juice in small saucepan and reduce over low heat to 2 Tbs. Cool, and stir in pinch of orange zest, fig paste, vinegar, and saffron.
2. Place butter in a mixing bowl and use a rubber spatula to soften until it is very spreadable. Add the fig and saffron mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Place butter mixture on a sheet of plastic wrap. Fold over plastic, shape into a log, and twist the ends to seal. Place in the freezer to harden. It will keep several weeks in the freezer if well sealed. Cut off rounds as needed and refreeze.

Grilled Sea Bream

1. Cut diagonal slits on both sides of fish at 1.5-inch intervals. Sprinkle fresh orange juice and salt into slits and cavity of fish. Stuff cavity with orange slices.
2. Spray fish basket (or grate – away from grill if not using basket) with nonstick spray. Place fish in basket on the grate directly over medium-high coals/flame. Place saucepan with fig butter at edge of grill to warm through. Grill fish until just opaque in center, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to serving platter. Serve with warm seasoned fig butter accented with saffron threads on top.

Israeli Oliveto Couscous

Ingredients:

• 1 peeled garlic clove
• 1 cup green olives drained, pitted and coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp anchovy paste (optional)
• 1 Tbs drained and rinsed capers
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 dash red pepper flake
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 shallot finely chopped
• 8 oz. dried Israeli couscous
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 4 oz. fresh mini mozzarella balls drained
• 2 Tbs basil chiffonade (long very thin strips)

Directions:

1. Process garlic in food processor until finely chopped. Stop machine. Add 1/2 the chopped olives, anchovy paste, capers, dijon, pepper flake, and lemon juice. Pulse until blended but still coarsely chopped. Add olive oil slowly with machine running forming a coarse purée. Transfer to bowl, add remaining olives, and season to taste with sea salt. Cover and refrigerate. This oliveto mixture can be prepared up to 2 days in advance.
2. Toss cherry tomatoes with 1 Tbs olive oil, season with sea salt, and grill over medium grill with occasional stirring until lightly charred and softened – about 15 minutes.
3. Place 1 Tbs olive oil in medium sauce pot, saute shallot over low heat until translucent, add dry couscous with stirring for 2 minutes to toast, and add chicken stock. Cook over low heat covered for 10 minutes or until al dente. Uncover, fluff with a fork, and cool.
4. Mix oliveto mixture, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil into couscous. Adjust seasoning with sea salt.

Tunisian Grilled Eggplant and Squash with Harissa Aioli

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup extra virgin  olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic very finely chopped
• 2 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 Tbs harissa powder or spread
• 1 red bell pepper cored, seeded, and quarter lengthwise
• 1 large eggplant  (1.5 lbs) cut into round 1/2 thick rounds
• 1.5 lbs mixed summer squash (green/yellow zucchini, zephyr, patty pan, crookneck, or globe) halved lengthwise and then crosswise in 1″ sections
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Whisk together olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and honey until an emulsion is formed. Add harissa and season to taste with salt.
2. Grill red pepper skin side down on high grill until darkly charred. Remove from grill, remove skin, and tear into 1″ pieces.
3. Toss eggplant and squash with remaining oil and season with sea salt. Cook with turning over medium-high grill until lightly charred and cooked through.
4. Plate eggplant, squash and peppers on serving platter, drizzle with harissa aioli, and sprinkle with cilantro. Serve with additional ailoi.

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Additional participants in this month’s Ingredient Challenge include: