Grilled Swordfish and JAWS

Last week I had the taste to try something new and broaden my culinary horizons. As a kid growing up I was never much of a fan of seafood. Over the past few years, my tastes have changed and I've begun to enjoy more and more of the types of seafood available. Along with wanting to come up with a meal to pair with one of my all time favorite films, Jaws, my new found taste for seafood brought me to the idea of making myself a swordfish steak out on the grill and I was more than pleased with the results.

Swordfish has a very mild flavor to it and holds up great out on the grill. With a very meaty texture and a slight fish taste to it, I can best describe swordfish as a cross between a steak and a boneless chicken breast. The downfall to swordfish is it's price, usually running around $20 per pound. The silver lining here is that the piece of swordfish pictured was just over 1/2 pound and easily fed two people. The price may turn some away but it's nice to splurge once in a while and a fresh swordfish steak is a great item to do so with.With a side of fresh cut french fries and a crisp summery salad, this is a perfect summertime dinner to enjoy with a classic summertime film, Steven Spielberg's iconic and timeless 1975 film Jaws.

1 Swordfish steak
The zest and the juice of 1 Lemon
1/8 cup of Vegetable oil
2 cloves are Garlic (grated or finely minced)
1 small shallot (finely diced)
1 tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
Kosher salt and black pepper

To assemble to marinade for our swordfish, first start by using a zester or a microplane and removing the zest from the lemon. While we have out microplane out, grate the two cloves of garlic and add the garlic and the zest into a mixing bowl or a liquid measuring cup. Once the lemon has been zested, use the palm of your hand to apply pressure and roll the lemon along your cutting board or counter. This will help get the maximum amount of juice out of our lemon. Add the juice of the lemon to the mixing bowl and pour in the vegetable oil.

To the oil and lemon juice, add the diced shallot and a pinch of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Next whisk into the mixture the tablespoon of Dijon mustard until the oil and lemon juice emulsify into each other to form our marinade.

In a shallow glass dish (A pie plate or something similar works well), pour a little less than half of our marinade into the bottom. Place the swordfish steak in the dish and pour the remaining marinade over top of the swordfish. You want to let the swordfish marinade for about 3 to 4 hours in the refrigerator but you don't want it to sit in the marinade much longer than that. The swordfish will get mushy if it's been in the marinade for too long so be sure to avoid that. Not only do we want to fish to remain firm for eating, it's essential that the swordfish stays meaty so that we can grill it with ease.


Once the fish is allowed to soak up the flavors of the marinade, it's time to grill! Preheat your grill so that it's at a medium high temperature. Using a grill brush, very carefully grease the grill grates with a bit of vegetable oil to help prevent the swordfish from sticking. Place the swordfish down onto the grill and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Swordfish will cook very fast so be sure to keep your eye on it at all times. Grill the fish for only about 6-7 minutes on each side depending on thickness. Swordfish will dry out quickly so make sure you don't overcook. Once the cooking time is up, remove the swordfish from the grill and serve hot. Once dinner is on the plate, pour a glass of dry white wine, and enjoy your freshly grilled swordfish dinner with this weeks movie, Jaws.

When a monstrous Great White Shark finds it's way to the Northern Atlantic ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a quiet beach thrown into a nightmare.The number of victims continues to increase as the Shark terrorizes Amity's waters. Newly hired and new resident of the island Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) has to find a way to stop the shark before it attacks again. To make matters more difficult, with the 4th of July on hand the mayor of Amity (Murray Hamilton) refuses to close the beaches. With the help of a marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and a seasoned fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw), Brody has to stop the shark before it takes another life, including their own. Lorraine Gary also co-stars as Chief Brody's wife.

Steven Spielberg's Jaws is without question one of the most recognized films ever made. It was one of the first motion pictures I truly fell in love with and helped me discover my love and passion for film making. You hear one note from John Williams' timeless and flawless score and you instantly think Jaws and about a shark attack. I mean really will there ever be a better or more iconic piece of music composed for a film? The answer is "No."

The 1975 classic is known to just about every person on the face of the planet and every one of them is lying if they tell you they haven't wondered what was swimming underneath the last time they went to the beach. Jaws was the first movie of it's time to truly be a smash hit at the theaters and drove movie goers to the theaters in massive numbers. The film terrified the world and launched the career of it's stars and it's talented young director.

Jaws was not an easy movie to film by any standard and, on more than one occasion, the crew were ready to call it quits. Between filming on the unpredictable Atlantic Ocean, going beyond the scheduled shooting time, going over budget, and most importantly a shark that wasn't working - it's a true testament to Spielberg and his crew that Jaws ever made it to the theaters. The biggest issue they crew faced, a mechanical shark which was slated to be the star of the movie that broke down nearly every single day. The film quickly went over schedule and over budget and Spielberg believed Jaws would mark the end of his career before it ever truly began.

While the crew thought the malfunctioning mechanical shark Spielberg named Bruce (named after his lawyer) would be the nail on the coffin for the film, their young director would use it to his advantage. In the original storyboards and concepts for the film, the shark is featured in almost every attack scene. Steven Spielberg would take inspiration from his own fear of the deep dark water and not knowing what could be swimming underneath you to scare the audiences without ever catching a glimpse of the monstrous fish. It was this concept and genius direction by Spielberg that truly made Jaws a horrifying movie to watch.

Jaws became an overnight success and nearly 40 years later, the film hasn't lost it's allure or horrifying nature to audiences. While many movie critics consider Citizen Kane, Casablanca, or Gone With the Wind to be the greatest movie ever made, Jaws equally deserves to be in consideration for that honor in my eyes. Though I'm willing to bet 99% of my readers have seen Jaws, I still urge you to watch it again in the near future and take note at all the tiny details that make this film the masterpiece that is. Instead of a link to a trailer for the film like I usually post, here is an hour and half documentary with interviews with the cast and crew about the making of Jaws.