I worked on a lot of grilling recipes for the June issue of Bon Appétit, but this easy grilled fish recipe is my favorite.
Snapper with Blistered Bean Salad and Chile Vinegar fits perfectly into the "weeknight grilling" theme. Because you're cooking in a cast-iron skillet, you don't have to make it on the grill, but, if you do, you can blister those green beans with abandon and not worry about your smoke alarm going off. You can get that fish skin extra-crispy without worrying about stinking up your house for two days.
The ingredients speak for themselves: Green beans are a miracle vegetable—you can do anything to them and they will still be delicious. I really like the texture and the flavor they get when they're a little bit charred. That's why the cast-iron skillet is ideal.
Snapper is pretty forgiving for a white fish. The skin crisps up beautifully, which holds it together. If you can't get snapper, this dish works with salmon, shrimp, or even steamed clams laid on top of the vegetables and drizzled with dressing. Even a mild fish like cod would work great.
The chili vinegar is a bit of a nod to escabéche, in the sense that it's a little sweet, a little spicy, and a little sharp. When most of us hear "vinaigrette," we think of an oily dressing, but this is not that. It's really punchy—you get the aroma of the habanero chili and a good bit of heat, but the dressing works as a thin coating over everything. You end up with a lot of it, so if I were to add a new element to the dish, I'd make a pot of rice indoors (or in a rice cooker outdoors) and use it to mop up some of the juiciness. The chili dressing will taste good on anything, so if you want to mix it up and swap out different vegetables, the sky's the limit.
