Okie dokie...
So, where were we?
Ah, yes, I remember. I had just made my 2-year-old kiss a dead fish because we all thought it was funny...
That's right.
Borderline child abuse aside, these fish are ready to go, so let's join them, shall we?
The name of this game is SIMPLE.
These fish are fresh, they're gorgeous, their friends are just starting to wonder what happened to them, so why mess with that?
So we scored them, rubbed them inside and out with a spice rub (a new-to-me one, Konriko "Dry Mojo" that has salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, onion powder, orange and lime zest, and thyme I believe) and stuffed the cavities with limes and cilantro.
That's it.
Luckily for me, on these too, too few occasions that I get to cook fish, I usually have a pretty decent sous chef helping me through the fishier parts that my city-boy self has yet to be able to understand.
He, being a former professional fisherman turned Environmental Educator for the Hudson River Foundation, has a lot of knowledge when it comes to things that live in water, and I'm sure that even a $40K culinary school education still won't even get me close to the amount of wisdom this fine gentleman has accumulated over the years about how to prepare fish (even though I'm sure I'll be able to make snobbier cream based French sauces able to cover up not-so-fresh fish since he would never bother with anything less than fish he either caught himself, or unless he knows the guy who caught the fish and his family by name).
Here he is, my special little guy, my almost-personal gardener/cleaner of fish/grower of flowers named after my children/pickler-of-shad.
Master of the Hickory-wood-burning Weber Grill.
Champion of Bald Eagles and their less noble but no-less-loved-by-him smaller feathered friends of all kinds (except cormorants), not to even mention the Hudson River, our original-most-important river in the country that he dedicated his life to.
A worst-nightmare to any squirrel who has the misfortune of setting its sites on his bird feeder (I've yet to have tried it, but he assures me that squirrel liver is better than chicken liver, and a braised squirrel is a "dead" ringer for a super tender, but even-more-flavorful-than rabbit.).
Always eventually grumpy, madly-in-love with his wife and my children (I'd guess he likes Liz and I okay as well), and the compost-er of all of our poops...
Mr. Christopher Letts aka Uncle Grandpa, or Poppa to the kids...
Here he is preparing a mackerel ceviche while I prepare the more attention-grabbing whole grilled fish...
Nice try Chris, but you're going to have to do better than that to steal my thunder...
Anyhooo...
Here are the fish, seasoned, stuffed, and scored awaiting the next part of their even-further fate...
Mr. Fish, meet Mr. Grill (I hate gas grills but that was all there was, I mean, we are talking about Florida here...)
Here's a good shot of the stuffed cavities.
Okay, well maybe not "good" but you know...
Meanwhile (for the sake of this post) I made a salsa of tomato, red peppers, onion, cilantro and green apple.
Here's a couple "fish grilling" action shots for people who like multiple angles of the same thing...
Here they are done...
All dressed up...
And that's the last picture I took before they were ravaged by a bunch of hungry animals...
By the way...
How was that leftover chicken, Liz?
Nice and dry? Still a little cold in the center?
Hummm?
Was it good? A little chewy, but still "okay"?
Better than nothing, was it?
That's right... Yum, yum... Eat your leftover chicken from two nights ago...
Well... I guess like is usually the case, it saves more for the rest of us...
This was a good one too...
I finally "see" why people like the eyes. I usually eat them to gross out whoever I'm eating with, but find them to be mostly a slimy, mushy, gelatinous mess, but these were flavored and charred and they were delicious...
I guess, like most things (I'm finding), it's one of those things that are better when you do it yourself.
I'm not going to "fish" around too much for more puns to use to get out of this thing...
So "sea-turtle"-loo, I hope you "shad" a nice time, and don't forget to "halibut" a nice day...
"Smelt" 'ya later...
n*
