Marlin is high in mercury, as is tuna, so it's not something you should eat every day. Which is really too bad because it's incredibly high in protein and low in fat. We're talking 41g of protein and less than 1g of fat for 6 ounces (which is a HUGE piece of fish, my friend).
Tonight, we are trying our first marlin; blue marlin, to be exact. It's marinating now in soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic. As I was prepping the marinade I was wondering aloud to hubby why some marinades call for oil...oil and water don't mix, and the other ingredients are typically water-based. It's like putting oil in your pasta water: A big waste of good oil.
Once the steaks have set a while I'll be spraying them with olive oil using our oil atomizer and searing them in a hot, hot, hot pan for about 2 mins per side...I want them raw in the middle because this fish has no fat and gets chewy if you cook it all the way through (I'm told).
We'll be serving this with a little canned pineapple and fresh peppers. It ought to be pineapple salsa, but we don't have any of the other ingredients so we're making due with what we've got.
Serves 2
1/2 cup soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves garlic
2 blue marlin steaks (4-6 ounces each, 1 inch thick)
2 tsp olive oil
1 cup pineapple chunks
3-4 mini peppers or 1 medium sweet pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Marinate the steaks in soy, lemon and garlic for 30 mins to 2 hrs (put in the fridge). Sear in olive oil in a very hot pan for 2-3 mins per side.
Chop peppers and mix with pepper flakes and pineapple. Serve with 1 cup of brown rice per serving.
Without rice per serving:
Per Serving: 268 calories, 16% fat (4.7 g), 62% protein (41.5 g), 22% carbs (15.8 g, 1.9 g fiber).
With one cup of brown rice:
Per Serving: 486 calories, 12% fat (6.3 g), 38% protein (46 g), 50% carbs (61.6 g, 5.4 g fiber or 21.6% of RDA).
AAAAnd the verdict:
It was awesome! This marinade was beautiful and I highly recommend (could also be used on swordfish or non-sashimi grade tuna). We adapted this marinade from the garlic-ginger-soy, or sometimes just garlic-soy, marinade with typically use for flank steak (when we're not rubbing it with cumin-lime for fajitas). The addition of the lemon went wonderfully with the clean, slightly bitter taste of the fish.
Usually we are grilling when we use this marinade, so it's fair to point out that things got VERY smoky during the 5 minutes of pan searing due to the low smoking point of the soy sauce. Five minutes, which was too long, in my opinion. I said 2 mins per side and should have stuck to my guns. I did 3 on the first side and 2 on the second and it was a little more done that I had hoped (barely pink in the middle).
If you can grill these instead I'd do it. It's not likely to stick if you oiled your fish and gotten your grill super hot before you start, and it won't fall apart once it starts to cook (so it's actually a pretty ideal fish for the BBQ).
The fish is, indeed, a bit tough, but given it's pretty low price point ($10 per pound) and delicious flavor I'm willing to deal with a less-than-ideal texture (it's not that bad, anyway). I was left thinking that this fish might be a good candidate for braising in a tomato-based broth next time. Sound weird, but given the texture I think it would hold up just fine. The flavor is pretty clean and I think it would be delicious with tomatoes.
