A quick and healthy grilled fish sandwich

One of my favourite things to do in the summer is to sit outside on the deck with a delicious beer or cider and cook something up on the barbecue! This is what I threw together on Monday evening:

The mix of flavours and textures in this sandwich are really wonderful. To begin with, there is the soft bread, toasted just for a few moments, for some crispness on the top. It is filled with a nicely charred, slightly spicy, salmon fillet (marinated in a herb and spice paste); garnished with soft, pickled, sour onion rings; slighter firmer and tangier banana peppers; and a creamy, spiced Aioli, on a bed of crunchy spinach leaves and juicy tomatoes!

On a side-note, in a few months, I hope to be using slices of our homegrown heirloom tomatoes in this recipe:

In any case, even with the store-bought tomatoes, the sandwich was delicious and perhaps, equally importantly, for some people at least, it really is easy to make 🙂 If you’d like to give it a try, read on!

Equipment needed:

Oven; stovetop and a grill pan; or a bbq

A food processor or stand mixer

Plates, spoons, measuring spoons and cups, a grater, and a knife

Ingredients:

Marinade:

2 Tbsp. oil (coconut; sunflower; or Avocado)

1/4 tsp. lime zest (the easiest way to do this, I find is to grate the lime using a grater)

2 Tbsp. lime juice

1 green onion (bulb and stalks)

1 Tbsp. ground red chili powder

2 cloves garlic

½ to 1 jalapeño (depending on the size of the pepper and your preference)

½ cup cilantro, washed and chopped

1 pound of fish, cut into fillets as shown below (I like using salmon or mahi mahi)

Aioli:

1 egg yolk

½ cup sunflower oil

1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsp. lemon or lime juice

1-2 Tbsp. Sri Racha sauce

To assemble the sandwich:

Onion rings pickled in rice vinegar (place onion rings in a jar or tupperware box, pour rice vinegar over the slices, and refrigerate for at least a few hours, ideally 24 hours)

Spinach leaves

Tomato slices

Pickled banana peppers

Buns (you can make your own, and I will soon post a recipe for this. But if you’re in a hurry, just grab some buns from a bread shop)

Method:

To make the marinade: Throw all the ingredients listed above in a blender or food processor. Once you have a paste, rub it onto your salmon or mahi mahi fillets. Place the fillets in Tupperware or a ziplock bag and place them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

To make the Aioli: In a food processor or stand mixer, process the egg, lime juice, and Dijon mustard. Then add the oil in a slow trickle with the processor running continuously. The mixture will slowly come together into a creamy mayonnaise. Now add the Sri racha sauce and process until incorporated. (A small note on “Aioli”: The term means garlic and oil. Some purists would argue that this emulsion in my recipe is not an Aioli, because it does not have garlic in it and because it has an egg in it. They might also object that it ought not have other flavourings in it, if it is to be called an Aioli. One can therefore, call it a Sri Racha flavoured mayonnaise, if one prefers :))

Grilling the fish: Place the marinated fillets on a preheated barbeque grill or a grill pan on a stove top. You could also place the fish on a pre-heated grill pan and place the pan in a preheated oven. Grill for about 10-15 minutes total (depending on the thickness of the fillet) at about 350-400 degrees fahrenheit, flipping once at the 7 or 8 minute mark. When the fish is almost done, quickly toast the buns as well. Once the fish is done, peel off the skin.

To assemble: Place spinach leaves and a tomato slice on the bottom half of the toasted bun. Place the fish on the tomato. Top the fish fillet off with pickled onion rings, banana peppers (I actually put the peppers on the side, because they kept slipping off when I put them in the sandwich) and a few swirls of Aioli. Place the top half of the bun on top and serve 🙂