Cranberries and Croutons: Mama Nature's Chimichurri Fish

Mother Nature has been dealing us an interesting hand of cards this week, including the epicenter of a 5.8 earthquake located directly where I worked for 3 years in Louisa County, VA, to an aggressive hurricane swooping up the East Coast with a name that, ironically, personifies the word, "peace".

The soundtrack from Into the Wild, as well as Eddie Vedder's new album, Ukulele Songs, have been playing on repeat in our house - that beautiful, profound, unassuming voice of his just fits the mood.

Amidst the chaotic twists and turns in our environment this week, hubby and I pulled together one of the purest, most delicious fish recipes I have ever tasted. I was inspired to make this dish from a Cooking Light magazine recipe that used a chimichurri marinade on top of halibut for a meal of fish tacos (yum). "Chimichurri" is an Argentinian sauce typically made with parsley, oregano, red chilies, lemon, vinegar, and olive oil. Sounds amazing already, right?

We used cod filets for this dish and wanted the filets paired with a simple veggie. (Chimichurri tacos in the near future!) The filets soaked up all the goodness from the marinade while taking a siesta in the fridge for 2+ hours. We used the dried herbs we had in the house, and therefore did not use fresh parsley and fresh oregano, as the recipe outlines. I am sure the fresh herbs would have made the dish even more incredible - if you just have the dried herbs handy like we did, just go with it!

Mama Nature's Chimichurri Fish
Recipe adapted from: Cooking Light Magazine, http://www.cookinglight.com/

What You Need
(adjust measurements as needed - these are my educated guesses based on how we adapted the recipe for our 2 filets)
2 boneless white fish filets (cod, halibut, flounder)
2-3 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (or 1 tablespoon dried parsley)
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 tablespoon dried oregano)
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 garlic cloves, minced or chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper (to your tasting)
a few light drizzles olive oil
1/2 lemon, cut into wedges

What You Do:
To assemble your marinade, add all above ingredients (sans fish, salt, and lemon wedges - set these aside) to a small bowl and stir together to incorporate all of the herbs and spices. Place the fish filets in a dish. Add the chimichurri marinade to both sides of the filets. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for a leisurely 2 hours or so.

Fire up the grill, add the salt to the fish, and cook filets (we used our new fish grilling basket sprayed with some non-stick spray!), for about 4 minutes a side. You may want to make "foil tents" for the fish so that the marinade doesn't fall off into the grill's abyss, never to be heard from or seen again. . .

We paired our Chimichurri Fish with steamed asparagus, and it was the perfect "August on the patio" type of supper. I squeezed a few lemon wedges on my fish right before it was time to dine; hubby prefers his without the citrus.

The parsley and oregano paired with the cumin and red pepper flakes is a lovely herby-spicy combination you will fall in love with at first bite. Oh, and the GARLIC... mmmm.... the garlic brings a real depth to the dish. I am a garlic fanatic.

Bon Appétit!