Pacific Grilled Marlin

Kia orana Koutou, Welcome to Day 3. Continuing on with our Pacific Biomass study and as luck would have it a gorgeous Striped Marlin is landed. These ocean gladiators are a member of the billfish family and identified botanically as Kajikia audax. A well-known, sub tropically widely spread species, proactive breeder, and fast-growing migratory epi-predator, these subterranean dancing warriors are explosive, action packed hunters, known to in short bursts exceed 50knots. 

They like I, enjoy time in Mexico and love to eat sardines and anchovies, and, are such a simple firm, textural, tasty, lean easy to cook protein source.

Grilled Marlin

  • Gently brush a flavourless oil across your marlin steak
  • Lay said steak onto a hot, hot bbq for 2 minutes. 
  • Flip the steak and repeat process. 
  • Remove, rest, season, serve. Note our steaks were nearly 2 inches thick.

For balance and to add another local flavour to the dish we matched a Rukau dish with a grilled plantain. Rukau is essentially young Taro leaves that are boiled with coconut cream. Plantain…think banana…grilled.

Rukau

  • Remove and discard the stalks from Taro leaves. Rough chop the leaves.
  • Add the chopped leaves to a pot and fill with cold water till leaves are well covered.
  • Bring pot to boil and continue the boil for 20-25 minutes, to soften. 
  • Once achieved discard 90% of the boiling water.
  • Add a good quality Coconut Cream to the pot. For this we actually used a Samoan origin coconut cream called Savaii Popo. Very good so worth the mention.
  • Bring back to the boil for circa 5-10 minutes, long enough for the leaves and coconut cream to amalgamate. 
  • Now taste test and season as required. The taro will be comparable to spinach in flavour, the coconut adds a nutty rich luscious mouthfeel. 

Grilled Banana

  • Take a banana not quite at its peak ripeness, undress it and place onto a hot, hot bbq, the plate side not the grill side. 
  • Using any suitable flat tool you can find to add pressure to said Banana and apply firm pressure to flat spot the bottom of banana. This will give more surface area to char. 
  • At same time the heat should cook and caramelise the banana’s natural sugars. 
  • As soon as you have the level of char or caramel you are happy with flip the banana over and repeat process. 
  • I personally prefer the centre of the banana to be relatively firm, this usually takes about 90 seconds per side.

For the record I am good with just Marlin and Margaritas but as mentioned last newsletter HIOT (Her Indoors on Tour) likes to enjoy a wider palate hence the green and tropical stuff. I pictured the meal being too busy however it all came together and balanced out well, with…you guessed it…dinner Margaritas.

Kia nui te kai