Opah with Mango Salsa

Opah are large, red and silver tropical fish with dense, fatty, tuna-like flesh. The flesh is so meaty it's like the fish equivalent of a filet mignon, and makes an excellent healthy alternative to beef for a BBQ. If you don't have Opah, you can substitute any other kind of dense fish such as Mahi Mahi, Tuna, or Haddock.

Additionally, the mango salsa in this recipe is incredibly versatile as well as easy and fast to prepare. Pair it with fish or chicken and you instantly have a summer dish bursting with colour and flavour. You can also use it as a dip for corn chips, flatbreads, or pitas.

If you're not sure how to approach cutting up a mango, learn here!

Serves 4

Opah
4 Opah Fillets
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Mango Salsa
2 Mangoes, cubed into 1cm x 1cm pieces

1 Avocado, cubed into 1cm x 1cm pieces

1 Tomato, cubed into 1cm x 1cm pieces

1 bell pepper, diced
1/3 Red Onion, minced

1 small hot pepper, minced
Note: The more seeds you remove from the hot pepper, the less spicy the salsa will be. For instance, I removed 75% of the seeds in the pepper so the salsa had a bit of bite, but wasn't very spicy.

2cm x 2cm ginger cube, minced

1/2 cup chopped Cilantro

Juice of 1 Lime or Lemon
1/2 tsp cumin

Olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl 15-20 minutes before serving, allowing the flavours to combine fully.

Opah

1. To prepare the opah, salt the fish 15 minutes before cooking. This will remove excess water in the opah's flesh, allowing the outside to sear and seal rather than bubble out the water and boil.

Grilling

1. If grilling, brush opah with olive oil and add pepper to taste, add to grill.
2. To test for done-ness, use the tip of a small knife to test if the flesh is flaking and naturally separating - a sign that it's ready to serve. A good rule of thumb is 8-10 minute per inch of thickness.

Indoors

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Heat a pan with olive oil, and sear all sides of the opah as you would beef or chicken. When all sides have a nice golden brown hue, place pan in heated oven to finish. Again, 8-10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Serve with a simple salad of fresh greens, or rice.