Take a look closely at the photo above. Tucked away inside the husks of the corn is a thin piece of Tilapia fish. Tilapia is pretty inexpensive, convenient to buy in those frozen packages but also it is difficult to grill, as it is thin and flakes apart when cooked. You either have to use a fish grate or a special grill grate. Even then, the pieces of fish will usually break apart.
In the photo above, you see a grill grate, with a couple pieces of tilapia cooking on the grate. I used these as control pieces. I had seen this technique on one of the food channel shows, and wanted to try it.I combined this technique with the cooking corn method advocated by Steven Raichlen that I blogged about yesterday. Feel free to click HERE to see those results. The results combined worked GREAT! Here's what I did...
I marinated the fish for an hour prior to grilling. Here's a bit of honesty, I didn't care for the marinade I made, so i won;t be sharing that. I did have great results for cooking the fish, so i will be doing it again soon. If I get an acceptable marinade, I will certainly share. But, mean time, while the fish was marinading, I pealed back the husks on the corn carefully. I soaked the husks in water to get as much moisture inside the closed up husks.
OK, I took the marinated fish and carefully put them inside the husks. I took one of my handy dandy specially treated reuse able rubber bands that do not melt and put one on the base of the husk near the corn and one at the end. The inside pocket worked great to steam the fish, while I was also cooking the corn.
The fish was thin, and only took 10 minutes to cook. Same as the amount of time for the corn to cook. When I opened the husks, the fish meat was firm, flaky and cooked all the way through. I do recommend marinading the fish to get the moisture inside the fish. It seemed to steam it.
This is a very spectacular way to serve your fish. Let your guests unwrap the husks and find the prize.
Very cool way to use that great sweet corn that is out right now, a great way to combine cooking methods, and a fun way to cook a very difficult piece of fish on the grill
Bon Appetite
This is a really cool idea. Ten minutes seems about right to get the correct amount of doneness on medium-sized shrimp, too. Will definitely have to try this.
ReplyDeleteThat is a totally cool idea - less mes, less clean-up, etc.! Wow.
ReplyDeleteJust tweeted you again!
ReplyDeleteNow, that is a totally cool idea! Cooking your fish inside the corn husk. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteA simple idea for flavoring a light fish can be a vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Whisk together and Just brush it on!
If this message comes twice please delete one.
ReplyDeleteIt is the end of the season in California for corn.
That corn looks awesome. Can you get decent Yellow corn at your local market or the farmers market.
We actually get better yellow corn at or Safeway. The farmers markets do not sell yellow corn.
Totally awesome technique for the fish!
ReplyDeleteExcellent share!!!
Greetings everybody, and thanks for all the comments. Last night I redid this recipe and it came out much better. I just did a posting that has more photos and a great recipe for the fish. So, please take a look and let me know what you think.
ReplyDeleteAnd foodninja, the idea of shrimp is terrific...I will be trying that soon!