Bluefish with Grilled Salsa Verde

Saturday 9 June

There are a few East Coast specialties we miss in the midwest, and one of them is fresh (or smoked) bluefish.  So when we saw fillets for sale at Luken's, we leapt on them (metaphorically).  Usually we get a whole fish, so we skimmed the web for ideas, and found this recipe for grilled fillet with tomatillo salsa.

Serendipitously, we already had a pound of tomatillos in the crisper, and though we generally like them better raw than cooked, we followed the recipe and threw them on the grill, where they rolled around like they were alive when they got hot.  Thick slices of red onion (with the skin left on to hold them together) joined them, and a half a red bell pepper, as we were going to use pickled rather than fresh jalapeño for the spice.  Once the vegetables got chopped and whizzed and combined with cilantro and salt, we ignored the recipe's instruction to thin it with water - you use lime juice for that, you turkey.

   Continuing our contrariness, we patted fresh lime thyme leaves and chopped rosemary instead of cayenne on the flesh of the fish, and grilled it in our fish basket, which made it easy to flip.

And what a surprise - the fish was succulent with its herbal accompaniment, and the tomatillo salsa was delicious.