Fish and Chicken

Tonight's menu was a combination of two totally different techniques for grilling. Gerry has been wanting to smoke some fish on the charcoal grill now that we have it, so we tried smoking some trout for Smoked Trout Bruschetta. The process starts by soaking some cedar planks in water for an hour before use. The trout are rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper both inside and out. Some thinly sliced lemon and dill sprigs go into the middle of the fish before it goes on to the heated smoking cedar planks. The trout are cooked until the flesh is opaque and begins to flake, about 15 minutes.
When the fish is cool enough to handle, the skin is removed and the fish is broken into pieces before being added to diced fresh tomatoes, and drizzled with fresh lemon juice and a little olive oil. This is garnished with a little chopped, fresh dill.

This trout, tomato mixture goes on top of slices of bag
uette that were brushed with olive oil and grilled until golden.

The smoke flavor on the fish was perfect - definitely smoky, but not overwhelming. Gerry can't wait to smoke some fish again for the girls.

The entree for dinner was Beer Marinated Chicken Tacos. A marinade was made with some dark Mexican beer, toasted sesame oil, chopped garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Some boneless, skinless, chicken thighs went into the marinade for a couple of hours. The chicken was then removed from the marinade and put on the grill to cook. Once done, the chicken was sliced and put into warmed tortillas and topped with homemade guacamole. The guacamole was simply made with ripe avocado, fresh lime juice, and kosher salt.