{"id":4528,"date":"2015-07-03T00:52:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4528"},"modified":"2015-07-03T00:52:53","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:52:53","slug":"grilled-swordfish-lots-of-herbs-eggplant-basil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=4528","title":{"rendered":"grilled: swordfish, lots of herbs; eggplant, basil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"swordfish_eggplant\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note to self and to readers:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0There’s usually no accounting for why some outings with a familiar recipe are more successful than the others, but we both thought that\u00a0each\u00a0of the elements in this entr\u00e9e\u00a0exceeded all earlier versions, and the reason I’d already repeated their formulas so often is that they were already so delicious (and subject to variations suggested by the availability of ingredients).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maybe it’s because I’m very much a child of the 50s (Xiphias gladius<\/em>\u00a0were big way back then, very<\/em> big), but I’ve always loved\u00a0swordfish. \u00a0I’d like to think I’ve grown up a bit\u00a0since first experiencing the magnificent critter, and I was never much taken with\u00a0its likeness repeated in porcelain or metal gimcracks often perched above bulky television consoles, but swordfish have always carried some serious weight within my epicurean pantheon, even before I left the Midwest. I think it\u00a0was the only item on the menu\u00a0in those days that could persuade\u00a0an auto baron to order anything other than steak or prime rib in a serious restaurant, like\u00a0Detroit’s\u00a0Joe Muer’s<\/a>, or The London Chop House<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mercury scare which appeared at some time after I left\u00a0the Great Lakes environment for deeper waters bummed me out, because now,\u00a0when\u00a0I could\u00a0develop\u00a0a more intimate relationship with this noble fish, it virtually disappeared from both menus and fish markets (probably a welcome development for the swordfish\u00a0themselves).<\/p>\n

And then the scare abated, but I still couldn’t find much to appreciate about it\u00a0in my\u00a0restaurant experiences. \u00a0As in\u00a0the case of tuna, I just assumed its unsavoriness was the fault of the fish. \u00a0It was only in the last decade or so that I learned how not<\/em> to cook it, meaning, to be sure,\u00a0not to cook it in the way it was cooked in the 1950s, and, in many places, long after.<\/p>\n

This meal employed\u00a0one of the two recipes I have followed for years; the other one<\/a> is actually\u00a0even simpler, and\u00a0also comfortable with\u00a0variations<\/a>.<\/p>\n