Grilled Swordfish with Blistered Grape Tomatoes and Sea Beans
Sea beans are a type of fresh, crunchy-salty seaweed found at some farmers markets and specialty shops. See the notes section for more about this ingredient, and how you can still make this dish if you can’t find it.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
Grilled Swordfish with Blistered Grape Tomatoes and Sea Beans made in the Adventure Kitchen.
2 pints grape tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons minced sea beans
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice (or more or less to taste)
2 swordfish steaks, each about 1 - 1.5 pounds
Coarse salt
Ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat the grill with high direct heat. In a large bowl, drizzle 2 Tablespoons olive oil over the tomatoes, turning them over with a spoon to be sure they are evenly coated. When the grill is fully preheated, toss the tomatoes directly onto the hot grill grate. Use a spoon to turn them over periodically to allow them to blister evenly on all sides. When the tomatoes have softened and their skin has blistered and loosened, use 2 spoons to remove them from the grill and transfer them to a large bowl. Total cooking time will be about 6-8 minutes.
2. Add the onions, sea beans and lime juice to the tomatoes. Stir to combine.
3. Brush the swordfish steaks with olive oil and sprinkle each steak with 1/4 teaspoon salt and back pepper to taste. Lay the fish on the hot grill, oiled side down. Brush the exposed side with olive oil and another 1/4 teaspoon salt and black pepper to taste. Close the lid and cook for about 5 minutes. Turn the fish over, close the lid and cook for about 3 minutes more, until the fish releases from the grill. Serve hot, topped with the tomato mixture.
Notes:
Sea beans are a type of seaweed sold at some farmers markets and specialty shops. They’re small, green, and filled with juicy saltwater. Whenever I’m out with my Adventure Camp kids and we stumble across them, they’re always a crowd-pleaser that remind a lot of kids of “French fries from the sea.”
You can think of sea beans as sort of cross between salt and an herb. Like a lot of fresh herbs, you won’t really want to cook them much if at all. Maybe toss them in at the end of cooking, or as in this recipe, mince them and throw them in after the cooking is over.
But however you’re using them, think of sea beans as a salt alternative in your dish. Use them like soy sauce or, well, salt. In this recipe, all the salt in the tomato topping comes entirely from the sea beans. Kind of cool!
If you don't have access to sea beans, you can just leave them out and season the tomatoes with salt to taste. If you want to add a bit of green to your tomatoes, try parsley or cilantro; or you could use snipped chives in place of (or along with) the red onions.
This is the kind of recipe where good black pepper can really shine. Since there are so few ingredients, things like good black pepper can really take things up a notch.