Hawaiian Grilling (an Ed Post)

I seem to have forgotten that I am supposed to contribute to this blog. I apologize. Jodie has been doing such a wonderful job, I wasn't sure what I should write about. Writing about my own cooking just seemed like bragging, and Jodie is covering all the food we eat away from home very well.

However, I realized I could share how I made some of the dishes Jodie keeps bragging about.

Most recently, Jodie described my grilling in Hawaii, so I will start with that. First, let me just say that I love getting a chance to cook abroad. It is actually one of my favorite parts of travelling. If at all possible, I always try to schedule some time for me to cook during a vacation. This is because the types of food available to cook with from one country to the next, one state to the next, or even one city to the next, vary considerably. It is great to be able to prepare kangaroo in Australia, game hens in wine country, or ahi in Hawaii.

Not to say that fresh Ahi is only available in Hawaii. Here in California I've had a good deal of success finding sashimi grade fresh ahi. Especially in San Francisco, but also at my current residence in Los Angeles, with only a little more scarcity. The Ahi in Hawaii is, however, considerably cheaper and easy to find at any grocery store. The quality of the ahi I pepared in Hawaii was particularly good as my parents sprung for the nicest cut available.

Making an avacado-mango salsa is not nearly as complicated as it may sound. Simply, chop an onion, mango, avacado and some cilantro if you have it (I did not that night.) Then carefully mix these ingredients in a bowl with lime juice, salt, and pepper. Cut the avacado in large chinks and be careful mixing, so as not get mango guacamole.

Searing Ahi is also uncomplicated. Just salt and pepper the raw fish. Heat the grill until it is very hot. Try to coat the area you are using with a little vegetable or olive oil to keep the fish from sticking to the grill. Then simply sear the fish on each side no longer than 2 minutes. The fish should be nice and rare on the inside. My Dad's steak was prepared similarly, except that I rubbed the salt and pepper onto the steak with olive oil 10 minutes before cooking. I also cooked it closer to 5-7 minutes per side. rotating it once 45 degress to get the angled grill marks.

Serve the fish with the salsa spread over the top. I served the steak the same way. On the side serve some grilled veggies (in this case corn.) I added some grilled pineapple into the mix, because, as I said, its Hawaii and grilled pineapple is just too good to pass up. Normally, Ahi goes well with a Sangiovese red wine, but because of the mango salsa we opted for a Chardonnay. The more citric a Chardonnay the better. This would be a good time for some of the crisp summery Australian Chardonnays such as Madfish or Grant Burge. Hawaii's wine is expensive, so we opted for a cheaper, but still tasy Barefoot Chardonnay. We paired my Dad's steak with a Penfold's Shiraz-Cabernet blend.