Beef shashlik

It being the weekend, there is a natural tendency to be dragged into a treckking and some good food. It happened this weekend also, there was a good family reunion (lasted for only the saturday) and there was some good food also. It started off with my aunt making great tomato rice and curd rice for the lunch. It was just mouth watering, to taste them together. What i meant by tasting them together was, I took half spoon of each and eat it together (just heavenly). Today being a sunday decided on heading to a trail which is meant for families to hike with their kids, but unfortunately there was a influx of traffic heading to the NJ shores and this prompted us to head back home for some grilling frenzy. It was to sacrifice beef to the gourmet gods. It was the same marinade as i had done the last week but this time i eliminated the tamarind date paste and added some tahini paste to the marinade (make sure it is just enough to stimulate the taste as it can overpower). My brother who is a master griller, cooked it to perfection. It was a succulant meat and vegetables (onion and bell pepper).This was a superhit with my nephews and family. It left us craving for more.
There was another surprise that my sister-in-law, treated us to. It was simple but again heavenly. She cut the pineapple into rings and my brother grilled it to perfection and she topped it with some butter pecan ice cream. This was a weekend which was a total blast.

Grilled Swordfish italian style

Swordfish, if cooked right can be a great delight on your plate. As the Texans say grilling is the right for all meats and seafood. I give them the thumbs up when it comes to swordfish. Before you can start with the dish you need to preheat the oven at 350*F.
The swordfish streak is available in supermarkets, trimmed and individually packed.
Place the fish on a plate and season it with salt and crushed pepper on all sides. Keep the fleshy portion of the steak facing you and coat it with lime juice, leave it on the plate for a few minutes (the acid from the lime juice cooks the steak and also induces the marination into the flesh). Coat the clean, hot grill with corn oil,(as it has a smoking point of 320*F). Place the swordfish on the grill presentation side down, give two minute on each direction to give check mark, turn over and give another two minutes. Take it off the grill and place in preheated oven for about 4 minutes. In the meanwhile make a mixture of marinated artichokes, diced tomatoes, diced onion sliced olives and fennel. Drizzle with equal quantities of lime and lemon juice. In a sauté pan add ½ tsp butter once melted add the mixture and cook over high heat, add ¼ cup fish stock to the mixture, season with salt and pepper (salt should be limited as the artichokes and olives already has some). Before taking it off the heat add butter to the mixture.
For plating place the sword fish in the centre of the plate and surround it with the mixture. Garnish it with dill leaves and tomato quarters.

You can also garnish it with tear drop tomato and fennel julienne.