Marinated Shark Fillets

To be honest I don't know anything about shark. I know people buy shark steaks, but how are sharks caught? Is it a terrible, unsustainable practice? Our friend Chris was telling me this weekend that people cut the dorsal fins off sharks and throw them back in the water to die, just for making shark fin soup. That hardly sounds like a decent way to do things. So, let's be clear, just in case there is something disturbing and/or improper about consuming shark. My father-in-law caught this shark while fishing on the coast. We didn't spend exorbitant amounts of money on a brutally caught ingredient. (Is shark expensive? It seems like it would be.) And it wasn't a big majestic predator of the sea, but some little sharky who was fool enough to bite on his line. I'm not one to look a gift fish in the gills, so to speak, so I decided it was time to cook it up. I have never made shark before, and my father-in-law suggested grilling it. To make things a bit more interesting I went looking for a marinade for the fillets and had something with soy sauce in mind when I started my perusing. I ended up choosing a marinade from Everyday Food. What else, right? I went with this marinade mainly because it offered the option of substituting ground ginger for fresh. I like fresh ginger, but I so rarely use it that it seems wasteful to buy it. I'm sure fresh would make it better, but this was a good marinade all the same.

Marinade for Shark Fillets
Recipe from Everyday Food; enough for 2 pounds














1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup rice-wine vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons sugar

• In a small bowl, whisk together rice vinegar, canola oil, soy sauce, ginger and sugar.
• Pour marinade over fish and let sit for at least 1 hour.

My notes: I quartered the measurements for the marinade, since I only had two fillets. I soaked the fish overnight in the fridge, turned it in the morning, and then cooked it for dinner when I got home. I grilled it for a few minutes on each side in a grill pan, and served it with roasted asparagus and brown rice. Very tasty. Father-in-law is going to the coast in a few weeks, maybe I'll get lucky and he'll catch another shark!