If grilled swordfish sounds to you more like a $32 entrée at a New American restaurant than a home-cooked meal, I beg you: Keep reading.Grilled fish—swordfish in particular—is not only completely doable for the home cook, it’s also significantly moreaffordablewhen made on your patio than in a restaurant. Simpler and quicker to prepare than a roast chicken, swordfish is worthy of becoming the centerpiece of your next dinner party or weeknight meal, especially when topped with a garlicky whole-lemon dressing.
Mild and slightly sweet, swordfish fillets can be much richer and more meaty than other fish, which are often thinner and more flaky in texture, not to mention, well, fishy-tasting. The bright lemon dressing adds a layer of acidic saltiness and a touch of bitterness that perfectly complements the rich, mellow fish.
First things first: buying the right swordfish for the job. There literally aren’t enough fish in the sea, so any time one purchases, one ought to do it smartly. That means taking a closer look at the label: fillets bearing aMarine Stewardship Council(MSC) orBest Aquaculture Practices(BAP) certification are more sustainable from the perspective of the environment, labor practices, food safety, and animal welfare and should be sought out when shopping if possible.
Raw swordfish steaks should have a swirled, almost wood-grain-reminiscent pattern, with white- to pink-tinged flesh that’s firm—but not hard—to the touch. Buy the fish skin off (or slice off the skin yourself before cooking), as it tends to be tough. If you’d prefer to buy frozen swordfish, the same guidelines apply, just pay special attention to the flesh color (you want white and pink, not brown), and ensure the fish is frozen solid, as opposed to soft in places, before fully defrosting and cooking.
