My husband, Jeff, loves to cook almost as much as me and he loves to try new recipes.  It is quite humorous to watch him search for hours and plan his menu but I love it and do not take it for granted for one minute!  On Sunday, his search was for a fish that he could grill easily but it would also need to have a nice sauce.  Cooking Light Magazine came to his rescue!

Now for those of you not familiar with “Char” it is usually called “Artic Char” and is related to the Salmon family.  This posed somewhat of a problem for Jeff because I simply do not like salmon but he assured me the Char would have a milder taste so I took him at his word.  (Note:  I love Salmon Croquettes and Smoked Salmon just not grilled salmon…make no sense!)

Another problem that I saw with the recipe was the raw onions…I do not like them.  I love them any other way but raw, but again, he assured me everything would be just fine 🙂  Also, neither one of us like mint in our dishes unless it is in a beverage but we decided we were going to leave that in the recipe just as it was.  As it turned out, that was a smart move!

Ingredients

• 1 small red onion, vertically sliced (Jeff sliced these extremely thin to suit my personal tastes)
  
• 4 (6-ounce) center-cut arctic char or salmon fillets (We only used 2 fillets)
  
• 1 pound small Yukon gold or red potatoes
  
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
  
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1 pint heirloom cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
• 1 tablespoon capers, chopped
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (often called sherry wine vinegar)
  
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• Cooking spray

Directions

Place onion in a small bowl; add water to cover. Let stand for 30 minutes. (Jeff left the onions in for an hour because of my feelings about raw onions) Drain. Set aside.
Arrange fish fillets in a single layer on a large plate lined with paper towels. Let stand, uncovered, in refrigerator for 1 hour (to allow surface to dry).
Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
Place potatoes in a large saucepan. Cover with water to 2 inches above potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until tender.

Drain; cool slightly. Cut potatoes in half. Combine potatoes, thyme, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a bowl, tossing to coat. Thread potatoes onto 4 (6-inch) skewers with cut sides facing out.

Combine onion, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, tomatoes, mint, capers, vinegar, and mustard in a bowl; toss gently. Set aside.

Sprinkle remaining 3/8 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper evenly over fish. Place fish and potatoes, cut sides down, on grill rack coated with cooking spray.  (Jeff coated the grill rack with cooking spray but just put them both on a cutting board since they weren’t going on the grill at the same time.)

Cover and grill potatoes 6 minutes without turning.

Grill fish 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

Serve fish with potatoes; top with tomato-onion relish. We added a southern twist and make Beer-Braised Greens as a side dish.Bottom Line:  While it was an excellent recipe and Jeff loved it, it still tasted like salmon to me so it wasn’t my favorite.  That being said, the Tomato-Red Onion Relish was outstanding and would be fantastic over any other type of fish or even chicken for that matter.  (I still would have preferred my onions to have been steamed a little but the sauce was so good, I was able to get past that.)  And those potatoes…..Oh, my!  They were quite possibly the best potatoes I have ever had and I will definitely be making them again with other dishes!

If you love Salmon, then you will love this recipe…if you don’t, just switch out the fish and everyone can be happy!  This is a recipe worth trying!

Check out the original recipe at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-char-with-yukon-golds-50400000113009/

Sustainable Choice: Arctic char is a sound choice; you can also use wild Alaskan salmon in its place.