Daviae: Hi, I’m Daviae Cognani. Summertime is about traveling and swimming, hiking and biking. For most of us, cooking is not high on our priority list. Today, we’re going to prepare an easy and healthy meal that you can make in just minutes. So let’s go behind the burner and meet the expert.
So I'm here with Lue Bevon of Tavern Direct. Lue, in the summer, I want to be outdoors and not in the kitchen. So let’s make something really simple and quick.
Lou: We’re going to start with this chili and sea bass and it’s very simple. I just placed it in—I just poke it a couple of times just to let the marinade seep in.
Davaie: Penetrate it.
Lou: We use our chardonnay fire grill garlic marinade and then we’re just going to shake it up, dump it in the—
Davaie: Bag? Chilean sea bass is also known as tooth fish. Chileans were the first to fish this variety commercially hence that’s how it got its name.
Lou: Now, I stick this in the fridge and let that sit for a couple hours. It doesn’t have to sit that long. We just want to make it so that it ferments through, okay. Now, we’ll get ready for our salad so we’re going to take our nice head of romaine lettuce, we’re just going to get rid of some of the excess leaves around it.
Davaie: It’s a good tip to use romaine lettuce because it’s low in calories and also high in vitamin A.
Lou: Correct. Chop it off and then just get rid of these pieces here. And then I want to take time trying. It’s good if I get it in half, that’s it. That’s how we use our—
Davaie: This is my favorite.
Lou: And we’re going to use our citrus balsamic which is tri-citrus balsamic and low on calories and it is also a very good combination of the two. All right, so I just chose this on, I mean really, we just want to make it so it penetrates. And then I add salt and pepper and then we’ll throw it on the grill.
Davaie: Before we go to the grill, Lue, give us your quick tip for smoky flavors.
Lou: I like the cedar plank because one, I can place the fish right on it and it won’t stick to the grill. And two, what I do in the morning before I go to work is I take and fill the sink with water and I use a pot so that I can keep the flame down. So we’re going to just soak it there anywhere from three to four hours minimum and then we’re ready to go.
Just take this, does that look good or what?
Davaie: So now it’s time to grill.
Lou: Let’s put the fish on. You hear that sizzle?
Davaie: And put the romaine lettuce face down.
Lou: This size of a grill, you want a little less heat on it because otherwise it would burn the hearts. What we’re going to do is we’re going to wait until I could feel the top of this is warm, and then that way I know they’re done. I want the sea bass really to ferment on the plank and that’s where the key is. You want to get all of the flavors in there and you want that to come up to the fish.
Davaie: So dessert is my favorite part, and when it’s quick and easy, it’s even better.
Lou: We’ve taken some grand mignon and we threw a little bit of the ground mignon on top of the peaches, we’ve cut them in half, real quick, real simple.
Davaie: Yes, so peaches actually, they’re seasoned. It is from May to August.
Lou: Right. So I'm going to place these in the fish here, rub the little grand mignon on them and I poked them with the fork to give them a little bit of pores. And then I take my autumn fig balsamic which is sweet and just drizzle this on top of all of them.
Davaie: Yes. So peaches originated in China although most people think they came from Persia. The peaches are ready for the grill.
Lou: Light them up because we want the juices to flow down into the peach. The way peaches are pretty ripe, we just want to poach them and so we feel, stick a fork when they feel they’re nice and soft and poached. We want to take them off, we don’t want to burn the bottom skin.
Davaie: So I can prepare one of our salads and look at that beautiful color that I got.
Lou: Okay we’re going to put some tomato, some avocado on it, some fresh parmesan slices that I’ve already cut and we’re done.
Davaie: The best part is you don’t even need dressing because you already have it on the romaine.
Lou: Absolutely.
Davaie: So our summer salad grilled to perfection.
So the fish is ready, I'm going to take some roasted peppers that we have here to add some color and flavor to our plate.
I'm ready for our peaches now too. Time to eat. The marinade for the fish, really tasty. Real summer comes from having peaches though. You can only enjoy them a few months of the year.
Lou: Now, if you want to throw it on top of ice cream, you’ll really wow everybody. Or cut it out and put it in couscous or your rice.
Davaie: So Lou, thanks so much for making this quick and easy summertime meal for us.
Lou: My pleasure.
Davaie: Cheers!
Lou: Cheers!
Davaie: On behind the burner, you can enjoy this exclusive opportunity to purchase Tavern Direct product. $0.50 of each bottle gets donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Stay tuned to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.
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