Fish Fail

It was a Friday during Lent, so I needed fish.  Yeah, I'm one of those.  I wanted to try something I hadn't yet attempted: grilling whole fish.  So off to Findlay Market I went, in search of whole red snapper for the Mexican Red Snapper on page 283.

I have had good luck with red snapper before while writing this blog, in particular the Red Snapper Fajitas on the very same page that this recipe can be found.  I was confident that I would enjoy this recipe and was excited to try grilling a whole fish for the first time.  What I was NOT excited about, however, was the prospect of having to decapitate a fish.  I've mentioned before in my writings that I grew up fairly detached to my food.  Breaking down a whole chicken was a big deal the first time I did it.  Still, a chicken comes de-feathered, gutted, and without various extremities like head and feet.  The fish monger asked if I would like it if he "prepared" the fish, and I merrily went along, even though I knew that this might be sacrificing some of the integrity of the recipe.  Back at home, I started by making the vinaigrette.

Next, I sliced the vegetables that would be used for stuffing the fish.

I then added in the vinaigrette.

After a quick tossing, the stuffing was ready.  It was time to start preparing the (headless) fish.

The fish needed a long deep pocket for the vegetables.  The fishmonger had started one when he gutted the fish, but it would need some improving.

Upon examination of the interior of the fish, I found that I would have to cut along the backbone through some ribs.  This would provide a much deeper pocket that what was provided.

Just a little hint from me to you:  be careful how you grab red snapper.  I learned the hard way.

The Bride came in to check on how I was doing.  As I ran the knife along the backbone, you could hear a slight crunching/snapping noise as the blade cut through the rib bones.  The Bride shuddered and left the kitchen.  When I was done, I had a much-improved pocket.

I filled in the pocket with the veggies, taking care to ensure that I was still able to close the fish.

It was a bit of a pain, especially with those sharp fins, but I managed to tie up the fish.  At this point, I was starting to become proud of my first attempt with whole fish.

Both fish were now prepared, and The Forge was fired up and ready.  The time had come to enter new grilling territory.

This is what they looked like coming off the grill.

The instructions told me to cut off the head and tail.  As the head was already gone, the tail was the only bit I had to remove.  It basically pulled right off with no resistance.  This fish was done.

Perhaps the hardest part of this whole experiment was filleting the fish.  Having never done this before, I was at a bit of a loss in how to run the knife along the body of the fish, trying to remove as much meat as possible while leaving as much bone behind as possible.

It wasn't easy to do, and my end result leaves some room for desire, but I'll chalk this up to just getting some practice.  I plated the rest of the meal, and called in The Bride.

Normally I end each entry with a small paragraph describing my impression of the meal and recipe.  For this one, I'll simply include a picture of what we ate that night.

:)