Cedar Planked Swordfish - also know as Swordfish Oscar

Everyone who has eaten this says it's a first rate fish dish. And I say that too. 

Smoldering Cedar Plank

4 swordfish steaks (6 to 8 oz.)
2/3 cup of mayonnaise
1/3 cup of Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of white pepper
1 tbs. of caper jar liquid OR
1 tbs. of lemon juice
6 oz. can of crab meat - well drained of all liquid

16 ozs. asparagus - peeled if thick

Use caper juice or lemon juice, not both.

High Heat Inferno

Mix the ingredients well, except the asparagus. Add the swordfish steaks and allow to marinate for 30 minutes minimum.

Do not soak the cedar plank. It is deliberately destroyed in this recipe to create the smokey flavor.

Using a portion of the sauce, spread a thin layer on cedar where you will put the steaks. Next, add the steaks and then cover the steaks on all exposed sides with the sauce.

Put the asparagus in a bowl or casserole and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Use tongs and mix the oil over the spears.

Preheat the grill 5 minutes, slide the cedar plank onto the grill, close the lid and cook 12 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook it for 3 minutes. So start the 'gus when the countdown timer reads 9 minutes to go.

Use a metal spatula to take the steaks off the plank.

COOK'S NOTE
The quality of the canned crab meat is part of the "making" of this dish. Drain all the liquid. The can of crab I bought was, in June 2014, about $4.00 at an upscale market. The next time I made this dish, I found a can of crabmeat for $2.00. I wish I had spent the extra $2 - this recipe deserves the best quality ingredients.

Mustard Made with Caper Vinegar - a strong flavor

I use capers in a recipe I created and posted about at this blog. When the jar of capers is empty, I save the vinegar that the capers had been packed in.

Today, I got out my Italian mortar and pestle and the following ingredients, pictured below.

Mustard flour, yellow and black mustard seed, capers in brine, shallot, powdered bay leaf, garlic, lemon and anchovies packed in olive oil.

This mustard is quite pungent. More so than Dijon. The liquid from the capers seems to lend extra strength to the mustard.

I had about 3 tbs. of mustard flour left in one of the bottles and started with that. The capers yielded about 100 mL of liquid. That turned out to be a lot of liquid.

I put 1/4 tsp. of salt and 1 tbs. of chopped shallot in the mortar and reduced that to a paste. Then I added about 1 tsp. of whole, drained capers and continued to reduce that to a paste. Once smooth, I added 1 tbs. of mustard flour and mixed it until it was thick. Next alternately, more caper liquid then more mustard flour was added. The trick here is to blend to a slightly thinner consistency (viscosity) than Dijon mustard as over a few days, the Caper Mustard will tighten up. 

Next I added 1/2 tsp. of sugar and 1/2 tsp. of powdered bay leaves. Mixing again, and adding more caper liquid and flour until I had used up the caper liquid, I must have used about 3 to 4 tbs. more of mustard flour before the recipe came together. At the end I added 1/2 tsp. of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Wonderfully that made about 4 ozs. of mustard. When I first thought of using the caper brine, I searched for mustard, caper and variations on the 'net, but couldn't find a recipe similar to this one. So, for now, this is a one-of-a-kind condiment.

For those of you who like bright flavored mustards, this is the number. I suggest you use it anywhere you would use wasabi. It would lend itself to fish dishes, too.

Please note that this isn't as much as a recipe, as it is a guideline for making a powerfully flavored mustard. I did not use garlic or whole mustard seed in this recipe, this time. Please experiment and report your findings. Thanks.

Peppadew - A Chile From South Africa

I prefer not to post about products, as I have said, before, but occasionally I make an exception. This is one. The food importer FoodMatch.com has started importing Peppadew "peppers" from South Africa. Technically these are chiles, but Thank You, Christopher Columbus for mixing up India with America.

Anyway: here is an easy way to get them where you are.

My local market sells the Peppadew in a brine. It is salty-sweet-hot, and I like to chop some up for sandwiches.