grilled swordfish and brown butter mango sauce with whole wheat fettuccine and green beans

i had a lot of leftover pureed mango from the mango-tamarind bbq sauce i made for the baby back ribs at last weekend's bbq. determined not to let it go to waste, i decided to experiment with a mango-based sauce for the swordfish steak i was preparing tonite.

i did a quick search on chow for how other people create mango sauce and found this post. it calls for browned butter, mangos, coconut milk and lime. i didn't have coconut milk so i subbed with what i had available, non-fat milk (bleh, i know).

i first defrosted the swordfish steak, patted dry with a paper towel, and seasoned both sides with salt and pepper, which then went into a hot non-stick grill pan with a little olive oil.

and prepared a package of tj's whole wheat fettuccine according to directions to al dente.

a handful of blue lake green beans were trimmed and washed.

and they went into the grill pan after the swordfish had grilled for about 3-4 min each side. a little olive oil, salt and pepper were tossed with beans until they were softened and browned.

i then quickly made the sauce by melting 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat until it started to turn golden brown. you need to watch this carefully so the butter does not burn. a scorched taste will infiltrate the sauce if so. i then added about 1/3 cup of the mango puree (which was already sweetened) and then about a 1/4 cup of milk. a pinch of salt was added and then the juice of half a lime to balance out the sauce. i tasted the sauce several times, adjusting the quantities of each ingredient until it tasted damn good.

the plate was created by layering a bed of fettuccine, a handful of arugula, a splash of olive oil, the swordfish, a few green beans, and then drizzled the mango sauce over and around the whole dish.

the sauce was amazing by itself. nutty and buttery, sweet mango flavor but cut with the acidic lime and salt. i added some black pepper to kick it up a little. nicely balanced and it went great with noodles.

it tasted good with the fish, but the sweetness brought out the fishier flavor of swordfish, something that usually happens when you pair seafood and sweets together. (hence you rarely see such a combination.) i think the coconut milk would've toned down the sweetness a bit and the richness of it would blend better with the fish. guess i'll have to try that next time. otherwise, this was mm, mm good. and so easy to make.