Grilled Halibut Sandwiches

Okay! We took a break from our BCC and moved to one of the many cookbooks we own.  This week we messed with Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals 2 and found a recipe for Grilled Halibut Sandwiches, yum! Actually, we used Haddock instead of Halibut, it was fresh and locally caught, better choice I'd say.  I actually followed the directions on this one, almost.  As far as the fish was concerned I stuck to the Old Bay seasoning, which is the reason I picked out this recipe in the first place.  We LOVE Old Bay in this house...I may not be from MD but I have some serious roots in the state and grew up eating blue crab, Old Bay a probably little ink from whatever newspaper we had lining the backyard table.  I introduced the Sweet Husband to MD's magic crabs and seasoning this past summer...

Captain Billy's, MD

He was up to his elbows in lemon, Old Bay and this platter of underwater treats [you can see a little part of the MD blue crab in the far right of the photo].
When I have fish on our meal calendar, I don't purchase until the day we are going to eat it.  Here's another tip, if your fish or the place you're buying from, smells like fish...it's not fresh.  Fish doesn't smell pungent and fishy unless it's getting old.  Fish should smell like clean water, the smell won't go away if you rinse or cook your fish.  This is crucial people, fish is finicky but if you buy fresh, local and day-of you're in for a treat.  

You know your fish is cooked because it will easily break apart or flake into pieces.  The great thing about fish is only takes about 4-7 minutes per side [only slightly longer for thicker parts of the fish, but 7 is usually reserved for a thicker cut of fish like salmon]. 
The bread we used was Panera's Asiago Cheese Focaccia because we had the Broiled Veggie Sandwiches earlier in the week.  It was a great bread to use for this sandwich because it held everything together and didn't take away from the flavors.  
Time to assemble the sandwiches:

There is a method to this...I like to protect the bread from soaking up the tartar sauce so I placed butter lettuce on one side and sliced roma tomatoes on top of the fish.

Then, place as much or as little tartar sauce as you would like.  The recipe RR gave is really delicious, not too salty, not too sweet.  We left out the chopped onion because I simply didn't feel like chopping it up - that and we usually reserve our raw onions for burgers and hot dogs.  

It was so delicious!  The right amount of each layer made for an manageable, albeit messy, sandwich.  The Old Bay stands out and the tartar sauce is the perfect compliment.  Try it, even if you think you don't like fish, give fish a chance.  Enjoy!