blackened ahi (or chicken, or mahi-mahi, or other…)
one of my favorite things to cook lately has been blackened fish. i like to use ahi or mahi-mahi, both of which are cheap to buy frozen at Trader Joe’s, but i assume other fish would work just as well. if you’re not a big fish fan, or you’ve got some chicken lying around instead, blackened chicken works great too.
STEP 1: MARINATE (OPTIONAL)
i often like to marinate the fish / chicken for a while first, especially if it was frozen. an easy marinate that i often do for stuff like this is roughly equal parts lime juice and olive oil, with ginger and garlic if you have them (powdered will work as well as fresh for this sort of thing) and with something spicy like chopped Thai chilis or chili powder if you have it. you don’t need to add too much of the spicy to the marinate, because the blackening part of the recipe is full of spice. make enough marinate to cover the fish / chicken in a covered bowl or sealed plastic bag, and marinate in the ‘fridge for between 45 minutes and 3 hours.
STEP 2: MAKING THE SPICE MIX
to blacken something is basically to coat it with spices and sear it quickly on high heat. the spices you use can vary based on what you happen to have and what you’re cooking. i recommend roughly equal parts of some or all of the following:
salt, garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, cayenne pepper (THIS IS THE BEST! USE IT IF YOU HAVE IT! one of my favorite spices for soooo many things), basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, or pretty much any other dried herb, curry powder, chili powder, and so forth.
mix together in a large-ish bowl in ample amount. (i don’t usually measure stuff like this i just kind of throw it together) once you’ve got it all pretty mixed together, stick your finger in it and see how it tastes. if it tastes too much like one ingredient, add other stuff until it tastes more balanced. (this is my common-sense cooking style. not so much into measurements if i can avoid them.)
STEP 3: BLACKEN
heat cooking oil* in a frying pan on fairly high for a few minutes, until it gets a little crackly. if it starts smoking before you put anything in it, turn it down a bit.
while heating the oil, remove fish/chicken from the marinate and get rid of the marinate. maybe pat the fish/chicken dry a bit, but not too much, because the juicyness of the marinate is going to help the spices stick. plop your fish/chicken into your spice mix bowl, coating it on all sides with the spices.
now place fish/chicken into the frying pan with the hot oil. the object of the game is to cook it hot and fast. how long exactly will vary depending on what you’re cooking and how hot your stove is, but a good ballpark guess is 2 minutes each side. fish/chicken should be blackened and crispy on the outside, and still soft and tender on the inside.
STEP 4: EAT
i like blackened fish/chicken with something a little sweet, so i usually do sweet potatoes (i like mine mashed with butter, brown sugar, and cayenne pepper, but you kind of can’t go wrong with sweet potatoes) and / or throw some kind of fruity jam or chutney over it. i’ve found that mango or pineapple salsa work great for this, as does orange marmalade** or cranberry or mango chutney, or… pretty much whatever you might have lying around that is sweetish and fruity. try raspberry jam. try whatever, but try a little bite of the fish/chicken with a little bit of the sauce first, so you don’t ruin your masterpiece while experimenting.
i also love this kind of dish with coconut milk cilantro rice. i’ll be putting up a recipe for that soon, and this bold will turn into a link.***
hope you enjoyed! let me know what you think.
*note– do NOT waste expensive olive oil for cooking stuff in. olive oil is great for sauces and other things because it TASTES so much better than vegetable oil, canola oil, whatever. but if you’re just frying up some fish or cooking some veggies, olive oil is a waste, and i’ve been told by fairly credible sources that it actually doesn’t cook properly either.
**at some point in this blog i will make a list of all the unlikely and wonderful things that orange marmalade is good for. i had some in my fridge one time for god knows what reason, and started experimenting, and found some seriously great uses for it.
*** all the bolded stuff in this recipe/rant/article are things that will eventually become links.
