The Swordfish Steak

In another one of those “cook something I’ve never done before” posts – I went for swordfish. Last week I delightful Crab Legs, so I was still feeling the seafood vibe. MrsForensicBBQ had ordered me to buy her some Bulgur for her next post, so being the obedient husband I am – off I went. Can’t help but slide by the counter and saw some fantastic looking Swordfish Steaks. Never have cooked those before – so today was the day.

Recipe below for the unadventurous, but you’ll want to see how I employed the reverse sear method for this gem. Thank you all for the extremely positive Instagram love lately. My Smokefest posts, both the pork butt and the brisket, received great reviews and wanted to say thanks. I let y’all in on a little secret if you were paying attention – I’m looking at currently a month-and-a-half lead time between the cooks and posts. We know winter, especially our Midwest winter, will put a damper on some posts – so by the time this is live, I actually cooked this on 08/21. Not that y’all much care, but that’s where we’re at! Let’s go!

---

Recipe

---

The Prep Table

As stated, MrsForensicBBQ was going to make something called “Bulgur”. I’ve never heard of it, made a ton of jokes about Whitey Burger, Vulgar, and about a bulge, as you’d expect from me. As I walked through the local Fresh Thyme, some old gentlemen was poking around the seafood. Talked with him for a minute and told him to check out the fresh counter – not to bother with the frozen shit if you don’t have to.

As we walked over to the counter, it was delightfully stocked. I had taken the day off work mid-week, so there weren’t many people around and I got to select some fresh fish. The weekday, weekend plans were kinda up in the air all up until this Saturday – unfortunately MrsForensicBBQ wasn’t feeling well for our plans Saturday – so I rolled out the smoker and got at it.

Having never done Swordfish Steak before – all I kept reading about was “do it on the grill like a steak”. Well, if we’re doing it like a steak, we’re Reverse Searing. Since I’ve started doing it years ago – I haven’t really turned back. To embody a little bit of that smoke then searing it off results in such a delightful product.

If you aren’t doing it by now – smoke it until about 20 degrees shy of your goal internal temp. Transfer to a hot grill or crank your pellet smoker up and sear it off until you IT is where you want it. That’s exactly what I did here, and you’ll see the progression.

Getting a little ahead of myself, but taking the paper wrap off the swordfish, you see the beautifully colored filet. It was about an inch thick, a pound in weight, and needed to get some heat on it. When I bought some of those Kampot Peppercorns from the Spice House for the Brisket – I also purchased one of their blends. Didn’t know when I’d need it, but after reading the contents – I knew this was the one.

Go check out this The Spice House blend, because it really shined in this one. Not only in the pre-cooked state – as shown above – but in the final taste. I like a rough grind and this was definitely that. Fired up the RecTeq Trailblazer – named El Alamein – for 200 degrees and when it was time to go, I went.

---

The Process

Reverse sear just like any other steak was my thought – Fired up the pellets for 200 degrees. I was using a majority of Apple with some of that leftover “blend” I’ve been complaining about for awhile now. Still, mild wood for a delicate meat. I also decided to smoke some lemons. 90% because I’ve never done it before, and the other 10% because it kind of made sense. I like a little citrus with my seafood, so I was excited to see what some smoke would add to those lemons. Spoiler: Did not disappoint.

Overall, I think this took about an hour – maybe an hour and a half to get to about 125-130 degrees. I think I pulled the steak off a little early, because I was getting hungry and knew I’d make up for it in the sear. You can see the smoke getting to it below, and I knew this was going to be fantastic. I had the grillgrate in the back waiting for it do its work.

Once I reached my 125ish Internal Temp, I pulled it from the grates and threw it under a foil tent. Cranked the Trailblazer to 450 and waited until it got ready. Knowing it’d be about a 10 minute sear, I fired up some tater tots. Nothing says Swordfish Steak side like the tater tot. Why not right ?

I was also planning to heat up that lobster bisque – but that was from a can and doesn’t need any additional info. I added 1/4Cup of half/half to the soup and heated up until hot. Enough about the sides – I told you I pulled it, here’s what she looked like.

That lemon took some smoke for sure! The edges of that swordfish were looking good – that seasoning blend (salt) really pulled some juice from that filet, and it looked delicious! I was kinda worried that the sear would take away from the overall picture after seeing how great this looked. Not to be deterred, the GrillGrate was fired up at 450, so let’s get some sear on it.

Sprayed down the Grates with some “Grill rated” PAM. We know the fish will flake off, but I was going to try salvaging as much as I could. I estimated about a 5 minute sear, rotate 90 degrees for another 3 minutes (Hash mark love). After the 8-ish minutes, Flip – Sear for 5, rotate for 3 and then it was time to get eating.

---

The Result

Threw a fun picture in there of my boy in his spot of the lawn. He watched as I cooked – he drooled as I ate. Wash Rinse Repeat. Love you boy.

And there’s the result we’re looking for. Beautiful looking sear marks on that Swordfish Steak. Had a little bit of pull when removing from the grates, but nothing substantial. It still showed the seasoning blend beautifully, the sear was apparent, I couldn’t wait to dig in. Those Tater Round were done, the bisque was ready on the stove – let’s finish up the plate.

And there you have it. Another great Saturday meal. Having never done a Swordfish before, I don’t know what perfection is – but I’d have to imagine it was something similar to this. I took a fork to it and it flaked away. The flavor was outstanding. I used such a small amount of that lemon because the Swordfish told its own tale, it didn’t need a caption. I did squeeze the lemon to at least see if it was worth it – and surprisingly it was! Hour on the grates at 220 and you got yourself a smoked lemon!

Definitely throwing this meal into rotation. The Bisque was okay – canned soup, so can’t be overly impressed. Tots were tots, can’t say much about that. But that Swordfish steak – can’t wait to make it again. At about $10/pound, can’t do it every day, but when I need a quick (2 hour) meal on the smoker, I know I can use this one.

Sign up for the e-mails, love to see when my friends want these posts direct. Thanks friends!

---

Recipe