grilling on “the big green egg” at downtown home & garden

our joint grilling demo last sunday at downtown home & garden was fantastic! a beautiful day on the sidewalk on lovely ashley street in front of one of ann arbor’s coolest businesses, grilling some of our seafood favorites on the big green egg. i was a bit nervous about doing a demo on a grill that i’ve never used before, but owner, mark hodesh assured me that there is nothing to it. and he was right!

this grill is amazing. it’s based on an ancient asian clay oven kiln like a tandori…thick ceramic that holds in the heat and keeps a steady and easily adjusted temperature. a small amount of natural charcoal keeps heat for many hours because the grill is so thick and well-sealed. mark started the grill at 9am and it kept a steady temp until 1:30.

everything that we demonstrated and sampled came out great (and we cooked a big variety). sardines with course salt & olive oil, barbequed oysters, squid satay with thai peanut sauce, warm grilled octopus salad, mackerel teriyaki, cedar planked salmon with irish whiskey maple glaze, swordfish with rosemary-orange marinade, and an herb-wrapped and stuffed whole black sea bass.

we were kickin’ em out and everyone really seemed to enjoy the flavors and learned how easy seafood on the grill can be. the big green egg really impressed everyone too—it was a pleasure to use it and it achieved great results.

one recipe that really seemed to resonate with the crowd was the grilled mackerel. so many people expect the dark fatty little fillets to be too full-flavored or even “fishy.” while mackerel has a good amount of flavor, when it’s been filleted off the bone like we do here at the fishmarket, it’s a rich and buttery fish that holds up to flavorful sauces, rubs and marinade. it’s also inexpensive and sustainable and loaded with the miracle fats, omega 3s. we used a teriyaki marinade, glazed the fish as it grilled with a teriyaki reduction, and garnished with some scallions and it was a hit! mackerel is also fantastic with our cajun rub and a kiwi-citrus glaze or a tomato-caper-balsamic relish…maybe even sweet swedish mustard dill sauce and grilled new potatoes…the list goes on for this versatile fish, so ask us at the market if you want to try something new!

big thanks to mark hodesh, margaret parker and the staff at downtown home & garden for another fun event!