2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
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TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021
Tipping the scales in your favor when grilling fish
James P. DeWan
The Daily Meal
Like all things you’ve never
done before, grilling fi sh can
be ... challenging. Don’t expect
perfection your fi rst time out;
do expect to learn and improve
with every go-round.
Why is fi sh hard to grill?
Fish is expensive and
irritatingly easy to render
inedible. Too much heat or
too much time can turn those
fi llets from fl aky to bulletproof
in a New York minute.
The problem with fi sh is
that its fl esh is more delicate
than sturdy land animals and
therefore more susceptible
to heavy-handedness. It’s
because fi sh live — and I don’t
think this will come as any
surprise — in water. Without
getting too scientifi c and bor-
ing, creatures that live in cold,
gravity-defying liquid environ-
ments require less connective
tissue as well as less (and
different) fat than creatures
who live on land.
But here’s the thing about
fat: It’s largely what makes
the meat juicy. Think about
that well-marbled steak you
had last week. Juicy as a blind
item in a gossip rag, right?
That’s the fat. And there’s
more of it in beef muscle than
there is in fi sh muscle.
Of course, fi sh also has
water in its muscle — about
three-quarters of its weight
— and that water evaporates
when you start heating up the
fi sh.
Between the lack of fat and
the evaporation of the water,
it’s pretty easy to take a beau-
tiful piece of fi sh and render it
drier than dry.
Hence, the single best piece
Katherine Martinelli/The Daily Meal-TNS
Mayo grilled salmon.
of advice to keep in mind
when you’re grilling is to keep
an eye on the temperature
of the fi sh. Remember, if it’s
a little underdone, you can
always throw it back on the
grill.
Grilling whole fi sh vs. fi sh
fi llets
Before I tell you how to
actually grill fi sh, I should ad-
dress the differences between
grilling whole fi sh and fi sh
fi llets.
There are plenty of rea-
sons to grill whole fi sh. For
one, whole fi sh makes for
an arresting presentation.
Furthermore, whole fi sh tend
to be more forgiving of heat.
The skin keeps the fl esh from
drying out and the bones —
because they conduct heat
rather poorly — aid in keep-
ing the internal temperature
down. However, whole fi sh can
be harder to come by than fi l-
lets — and more intimidating.
If you’re going with fi llets,
go with a thick, sturdy fi sh like
salmon, tuna or mahi mahi.
They don’t need to be cooked
all the way through and won’t
fall apart when you fl ip them
on the grill. If you like to keep
the skin on, especially if you’re
doing something like salmon,
grill your fi sh skin side down
for most of the cooking time.
After you fl ip them, let them
go for just another minute or
two. That will give you nice,
crisp skin with fi llets cooked to
your perfect level of doneness.
If you only have skinny little
fi llets, but you’re dying to fi re
up the grill, you can always
fold them in foil and place that
nice little package on the grate.
If you go this route, place a
layer of lemon slices over the
top of the fi llets before you en-
case them in foil. It’ll help keep
them moist and look pretty
when you serve them.
How to grill fi sh in 5 easy
steps
1. Before you cook, clean
your grill with a wire brush!!!
2. To prevent your fi sh from
sticking to the grill, brush it on
both sides with any cooking
oil. Some people like mayon-
naise instead of oil (see recipe
below). The seasoning adheres
to it nicely and it also prevents
your fi sh from sticking to the
grill. Speaking of seasoning,
season your fi sh with salt and
other spices, like pepper, Old
Bay or your own spice mix.
Just remember, if your spice
mix has salt, don’t salt the fi sh
separately.
3. Get your grill going to
medium-high heat, then set
your grill grate over the heat
source so it gets nice and hot.
4. Place your oiled (or
mayoed) fi sh onto the grill,
presentation side down. The
presentation side is the side
you want your diners to see.
With skinless fi llets, the
presentation side is the bone
side because the skin side
will still have some connec-
tive tissue attached to the
fl esh. That’s not a big deal; it
just doesn’t look as nice.
If you’re doing a whole fi sh,
like red snapper or sea bass,
oil it up and lay it down.
5. The rule of thumb
for cooking fi sh is roughly
5 minutes per side for a
one-inch-thick fi llet. If you
have a meat thermometer,
use it. You want an internal
temperature of about 140
degrees Fahrenheit. The
fl esh will be mostly opaque
with just a glistening hint of
translucence. Of course, the
doneness level of fi sh is a
personal decision. The more
you grill fi sh, the more you’ll
understand what you like
and how to achieve it.
Once your fi sh is done,
remove it immediately to a
warm serving platter and let
it rest for just a few minutes.
Garnish it with a squeeze of
lemon, a pat of butter or any-
thing else you think would be
festive and serve it immedi-
ately. Regardless of how it
turns out this time, remem-
ber what you did so that next
time, it’ll be even better.
MAYO GRILLED
SALMON
For the most attractive
presentation, skinless salmon
is served bone side (as opposed
to “skin side”) up. Grill roughly
8 to 10 minutes total, fl ipping
once, for 1-inch fi llets. Salmon
is done when an instant read
thermometer registers 140F
or when the interior is just
becoming opaque. You can use
the tip of a knife to separate
fl akes at the fi llet’s thickest
part to check doneness.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes 4 servings
4 (5-ounce) salmon fi llets,
preferably skinless
Mayonnaise as needed
(about 1/4 to 1/2 cup)
Salt as needed
Pepper as needed
Freshly lemon slices as
needed (optional)
Parsley, minced, as
needed (optional)
1. Preheat grill. Season bone
side of salmon fi llets with salt
and pepper.
2. Brush or spread mayon-
naise in a thin layer over both
sides.
3. Place fi llets bone side
down on grill grate directly
over medium hot coals. Grill
for 4 to 5 minutes, then fl ip and
grill the other side to preferred
doneness, about 4 more
minutes.
4. Remove fi llets to a warm
platter to rest 3 to 5 minutes.
While fi llets rest, squeeze
lemon over. Garnish fi llets with
optional minced parsley and
serve immediately.
New book celebrates the most comforting of comfort foods
Where us, it would’ve been
started using less raw fi sh to
a burger and fries. For that
appeal to the American palate.
Forget apple pie. Now,
generation, it’s sushi.”
They also put rice on the out-
when we speak of how much
The idea is similar to what
side to hide the seaweed many
something embodies the spirit Page calls “the bagelization of people fi nd unappetizing and
of this country, we say it is as America.”
use ingredients never found in
American as … sushi?
Bagels, like sushi and
Japan, such as cream cheese.
That, as far as I can tell,
pizza, came to America from
Pizza, too, has evolved to
is the thesis of “Food Ameri-
other lands. At fi rst, they were become something uniquely
cana,” a new book by David
known only to people of the
American. The crust here is
Page celebrating the most
ethnic groups that imported
crisper than in its native Italy,
comforting of American com- them. Then other Americans
and we use more sauce and
fort foods.
discovered them, and the foods far more toppings. But also,
Page is the creator of the
began changing to suit their
among higher-end pizzerias,
long-running Food Network
taste.
there is a trend toward re-
television show “Diners,
Bagels became larger, softer, creating the simpler pizzas
Drive-Ins and Dives,” which
sweeter (part of the reason
of Naples, with a moist crust
sends restaurateur Guy Fieri they are softer is that the
topped with nothing more
around the country to an end- mass-production machines
than crushed tomatoes, moz-
less assortment of mom-and- required to feed a nation can-
zarella cheese and, if you want
pop shops in search of great
not handle the stiffer dough
to be daring, fresh basil.
cheap regional cooking.
of a real bagel). And they are
A similar movement is
The book delves into the
now being made with so many also going on in Chinese food,
history of a number of foods
regional American ingredients which Page also considers
we typically think of as Ameri- and toppings that at one place American (“there are more
can — fried chicken, barbecue, in Alaska you can get reindeer Chinese restaurants in America
chicken wings, ice cream
sausage on a cheddar bacon
than all the McDonald’s, Burger
— to show where they came
bagel.
Kings, Wendy’s and KFCs
from and to look at in what
Similarly, sushi restaurants combined,” he writes).
directions they are currently
evolving.
When your computer is in despair
Which is where the sushi
comes in. It is no surprise to
learn that sushi hopped over
to America from Japan after
World War II, brought not as
much by returning GIs as by
Japanese corporate executives
opening offi ces in this country
MOBILE COMPUTER SUPPORT
and craving the foods of home.
Sushi restaurants opened
DALE BOGARDUS 541-297-5831
to serve the Japanese work-
ers; they were discovered by
Americans (actor Yul Brynner
was among the fi rst to popu-
larize them), and the sushi
craze took off.
541-786-8463
But could sushi be consid-
M. Curtiss PN-7077A CCB# 183649
M
ered an American comfort
food? Think about this: Tracey
Schram, a vice president of a
major sushi supplier, is quoted
as saying, “When you look at
the millennials, this is some-
thing that’s their go-to food.
Daniel Neman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
OUTSTANDING
Chinese food first came to
this country with the Gold
Rush of 1849, which drew thou-
sands of Chinese men hoping to
strike it rich. They brought with
them woks and the concept of
stir-frying over high heat, which
they combined with available
American ingredients to create
a hybrid cuisine.
After a Chinese government
official named Li Hongzhang
visited this country in 1896
and was widely (if inaccurately)
reported to have eaten one
of these hybrid dishes called
chop suey, the whole country
went mad for the dish and the
thousands of new restaurants
that specialized in it.
Other hybrid Chinese recipes
became standard too, with
varying degrees of fidelity to
anything that is actually served
in China — shrimp with lobster
sauce, crab Rangoon, beef with
broccoli and, eventually, General
Tso’s chicken.
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