Artichoke and Crusty Bread Kebabs, Discovering Barramundi

Last night, we went to our friends’ house for Father’s Day. It was very modern meets nuclear — the women worked away in the kitchen while the men drank and the children frolicked. But they were drinking microbrews, not scotch neat. And we were not wearing ruffled aprons and getting lightly slapped on our bottoms by gin-blossomed, cigar puffing misogynists. And because I was charged with the grocery shopping, we ate fish, not steak:) I guess it wasn’t so much nuclear as I was actually doing the cooking for a change. Some women make dinner for their families every night. I’m not one of those women.

This month’s Whole Living has a great collection of grill recipes, and I decided last night was as good a time as any to try one out. Usually with kebabs, I get stuck in a rut of green peppers and onions with either chicken or beef. But we did the Artichoke and Crusty Bread Kebabs last night and they were delish… and so easy!

Photo from Whole Living. Artichoke + Bread kebabs, all the way on the left.

I just followed Whole Living’s very simple recipe:

Artichoke + Crusty Bread: Skewer two 15-ounce cans artichoke hearts (drained) and 2 1/2 cups torn crusty bread. Generously drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill, turning, until lightly charred, 2 to 3 minutes.

The best part? Unlike other kebabs, there wasn’t any chopping, slicing or dicing. The hearts come out ready to skewer from the can, and you simply tear the pieces of bread from the loaf (I used ciabatta). I can’t wait to try the others!

We also grilled up some yellow peppers and onions from my friend’s garden, a bulb of fresh garlic (tastes great spread on the bread), and a whole eggplant, which my friend seasoned after it was grilled with tahini and fresh cilantro. It was a-MAZE-ing. Like grilled baba ganoush (also good spread on the grilled bread).

And then there was the fish. It was an Australian white fish called Barramundi, which isn’t well-known here, but is very popular down under. I admit I chose it because it was on sale, but I’m glad it was, because it’s now on my fish list. Apparently, it’s Dr. Oz’s number one super food, being very high in Omega-3’s. I’ve seen it called “the sustainable sea bass” because of the way it is harvested, but whatever you want to call it, it has a wonderful, rich flavor that you don’t want to over power with a marinade that’s too strong. I don’t know all that my friend mixed into her marinade, but it was gooood. She combined tahini, rice vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes… and I lost track from there (cooking with wine will do that to you).

All in all, an amazing Father’s Day feast. At least I think it was. I forgot to ask Dave what he thought:)