First Red Snapper
We have an international grocery store near us called Global Food. We’ve been going there for quite a while and have always looked at the section where they have whole fish but didn’t really want to have to clean the fish ourselves. Turns out we don’t have to! You pick out the fish you want, put it in a basket, and hand it to the people behind the counter. They weigh the fish, print the label for how much it weighed and how much it cost, then ask you how you’d like it cleaned. Sweet! Since we didn’t have to clean it (yes, we’re lazy sometimes), we decided to try Red Snapper. We got two decent sized Red Snapper and had them scale them, gut them, and clip the tails, but leave the heads on.
Note: All the credit for this one goes to my wife. All I did was eat it. She had everything done but pulling it off the grill by the time I got home but I had her explain to me what she did so I could share it here (and so we could refer back to it later, it was GOOD!)
- Open up the cavity of the fish (where the guts were) and salt and pepper the inside.
- Take a knife and score both sides of the fish with a knife. This just means cut two or three slits diagonally along the body part of the fish
- Inside the cavity, fold a green onion in half, add two sprigs of rosemary and four sprigs of parsley.
- Then add a couple tablespoons of mixed vegetables: leeks, celery, shaved carrots (sliced really then lengthwise), and green onions inside the cavity. Exact measurements aren’t needed.
- Tie the fish up with cooking twine so the stuff you just put into the cavity doesn’t come falling out when you flip the fish later.
- Generously sprinkle kosher salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil on the outside of both sides of the fish.
- Preheat the grill on high (about 10-15 minutes)
- Put the fish on the grill , then add a green onion lengthwise on top of the fish. Add two orange slices on top of the green onion. Do this to each fish.
- Leave the heat on high, close the lid, and cook for 10 minutes or until the fish releases from the grill.
- Once the fish releases, remove the orange slices and green onion from each fish with tongs, flip the fish over, then add the green onion and orange slices back on top of each fish.
- With the lid closed, grill for another 10 minutes or until the fish releases.
- Remove the fish from the grill and serve whole on a plate.
There were some small bones right near the gills which happens to be where we started eating. We were thinking that we were in for a battle of picking bones out out of the fish. As we moved away from the gills though, towards the tail, there weren’t any more bones except those connected to the spine. It was very easy to pick the meat off with a fork and was really tasty. We had never had Red Snapper before but after this, we’re certainly going to have it again.
This was also the first try with the new Grill Grates. The fish ended up being really moist and not dry at all. The grill grate tool (my wife calls it a pitch-fork) worked really well in flipping the fish and removing them from the grill when done.
Result: Very tasty flavorful fish.