Grilled Swordfish Topped With Smoke Roasted Salsa

The morning view from the deck was a damp one, courtesy of the charcoal sketched skies that on this day, decided to grace us with a slow, peaceful, soaking rain. They are a comforting thing, these soft rains, with seemingly uniform drops rhythmically tapping down, nourishing not only the ground and vegetation, but also nourishing our souls. While many of nature’s colors become muted by rains of this type, others become enhanced, giving us notice as to their vibrance.

Such is the case today, which turns out to be appropriate, given our grilling plans. There will be swordfish, but I’ll also smoke roast some of those fresh veggies to create a colorful and flavor boosting salsa topper. And that combo seems a perfect reflection of this type of day, contrasting the colorless tone of the swordfish with the bright, electric color palette of freshly made salsa. So let’s get after it, with a meal of Grilled Swordfish Topped With Smoke Roasted Salsa.

My vegetable choices are simple, and consist of Roma tomatoes, green and yellow peppers, jalapeños, red onion, and a couple of cloves of fresh garlic. You can use whatever veggies you like, in the quantities to match your taste. Even adding in some fresh fruit will do nicely, such as pineapple, mango, or strawberries. Possibilities!

After a scrubbing, they were rounded up into a grill pan, and set over the direct heat of a lump charcoal fire, medium hot, with the subtle smoke from applewood. I stayed with them, pitside, occasionally shuffling the pan around once in a while like I was panning for gold with the folks in San Francisco over a hundred and fifty years ago. Unlike them, I  discovered charred veggie gold, and was happy to have it in my hands.

After removing them from the grill, I skinned the veggies where I could, removed most of the seeds from the peppers and tomatoes, and diced ’em up all proper like.

When good and mixed, I added 2 Tbsp each of olive oil, lime juice, and a little more than 2 Tbsp of fresh chopped cilantro.

Set this colorful bowl in the fridge so the swordfish can finally makes its appearance. The salsa will take more time to make than the fish, because thats just common fish grilling facts. I think. Now go get that swordfish, this one being about a pound, and probably a little over an inch thick. I didn’t really measure it so I just made that up, but nevertheless, it was a thick one.

Sprinkled with nothing more than seasoned pepper blend, the steak was laid directly over the hardwood fire.

After a bit, depending on the strength of your fire, give it a flip and grill to an internal temperature of 145 degrees before pulling it from the grill.

All that’s left is getting some color on this plate, so get your smoke roasted salsa and commence to decorating your swordfish steak. The crisp, fresh salsa is a great complement to the hot swordfish, and because those peppers and tomatoes got a little sweet from the applewood smoke, it matched perfectly with the peppered swordfish, in both flavor and texture. Lordy!

Because Life Is Better Wood Fired