Swordfish Souvlaki

Everything in this dish was very good except the fish. I cooked a frozen swordfish steak from Trader Joe’s on the George Foreman, and it came out bland and without much texture. While it could have been worse, I think the easiest way to improve this dish dramatically is to switch to a different meat or seafood. The taste of the veggies and yogurt are pretty compatible with a lot of other things, so try anything. Pork tenderloin pieces come to mind first.

Follow-up: Breading the fish and pan-frying with olive oil was not bad at all. I still think the meat of this dish could have more flavor, but the fish breaded and cooked at high temperature was a huge improvement.

Serves 4

Mix in a bowl:
-1 coarsely-grated cucumber (remove seeds if you want), and squeeze out as much water as possible from gratings using a paper towel as bag
-8oz plain yogurt
-1.5tsp fresh chopped mint leaves (this is powerful -- don’t use too much or it will dominate the dish)
½ tsp finely chopped garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Mix in a bowl:
3 to 4 Roma tomatoes cut into ½” pieces
1 small thinly-sliced red onion cut into 1” slivers (or less)
¼ c chopped flat parsley (I used cilantro -- it was fine)

Marinate in bowl:
1 lb swordfish steak (or other meat) cut into ½” to 1” cubes
1 tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Wrap pita bread pieces tightly in foil, and keep warm in 200*F oven. Make cucumber mixture and tomato mixture separately -- keep them cool. Cook the fish or meat and place it along with the two mixtures into a warm pita. The contrast of hot and cool foods is nice.