Teriyaki Salmon (on a cedar plank)

I was looking through some older entries on our blog this weekend and I realised that I had never blogged a Teriyaki salmon recipe. It was a perfect opportunity to try something new as our dear friend Matt was in town from the UK and frankly, there’s nothing better than catching up with a home cooked meal over a few glasses of wine.

Now you have to also understand Matt. He’s a lawyer by training and trainer by profession and lets just say he doesn’t hold back on opinion. That makes cooking for someone like him a bit of a  challenge as the meal has to be good. And if truth be told, the big green asian egg didn’t disappoint last night nor did Heather’s strawberry custard flan.

For the Teriyaki marinade/finishing sauce you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced green onion bottoms

Combine the above in a handmixer or a blender and pulse on low speed for about a minute, basically until everything combines well. Reserve half of the marinade for a finishing sauce you’ll prepare later on. Place three pieces of salmon in a shallow glass dish and pour the marinade over the salmon. Now flip the salmon so that the skin is facing upwards, put a lid on the dish and pop it back into the fridge for a few hours. In the meantime, place a cedar plank in the sink full of cold water and let it soak for about four hours.

Your grill should be set for a medium high heat (say around 400 F) and set up for direct heat. Take your cedar plank out and dry it off then pour about a tablespoon of olive oil over the plank and smear an even coat across the plank. Season with coarse salt and pepper and put it on the grid. Close the lid and let the plank warm up for about two minutes.

Once ready, place your salmon directly onto the plank and take the leftover marinade that you had in the glass dish and drizzle the salmon. Close the lid and let let the salmon cook for about 15 minutes to a maximum of 20 minutes (if the salmon is particularly thick.) When the timer pings, carefully remove the plank from the grid with a wide spatula and let the salmon rest right on the plank. You’ll hear the cedar crackle and pop for while still and the smell is incredible! While the salmon rests for about 5 minutes you should take the reserve marinade and bring it to a simmer, reducing it to about half and until it thickens. Plate your salmon and drizzle the thickened finishing sauce on top.

We served our salmon with a Mediterranean couscous and a simple rocked salad followed by a strawberry custard flan. A bit of an eclectic meal but yummy beyond belief.

In true Matt Dean style, this is what he had to say:

Matt’s verdict

“As someone who hasn’t eaten meat for much of my life, I have eaten many, many salmon steaks.  Frequently they are bland, sometimes dry and flaky, sometimes blackened on the outside but a soft, uncooked pink on the inside.  Last night’s offering was absolutely perfectly cooked throughout. And deliciously moist, properly infused with the teriyaki flavour. How could Mr Matla judge the moment to take them out? How were all of the steaks perfectly cooked despite their different thicknesses. Either he is a genius or (more likely) this big green egg is as good as he says it is. My only tiny, weeny question: could we have had a little bit of that teriyaki stickiness I’ve experienced before? Perhaps I’m asking for too much – how could that form on a soaked cedar board?

Heather’s cous cous with creamy feta cheese was a perfect accompaniment and certainly something I will be trying to replicate at home.”  

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Overall Heather Rating: 9/10 & Overall Matt Rating: 10/10

Hot-Smoked Salmon (Update)

Happy weekend one and all. This past Saturday, Heather and I hosted our two friends Rasa and Chris and their troop of four for an evening of all things fishy on the egg. Hot-smoked salmon and Sri Lankan crab. The post tonight will focus on the Hot-Smoked Salmon as I’ve adjusted the recipe just a smidge so I figured you’d rather hear about that.

To get the salmon ready, you’ll need to brine the fillets overnight in a non reactive bowl that has a lid. Try the following, simple but oh so effective brine:

• 2 cups of water
• 1/8 cup Kosher salt
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Tablespoon dried fennel (dry roast the fennel in a pan for a few minutes and then crush it all up in a mortar and pestle – this lets ALL the flavour our!)
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 4 cloves smashed garlic

Place your salmon in skin side up and pop it all in the fridge overnight. Remember, you can always make more brine if you need it. This covers about three medium sized salmon fillets perfectly.

On the following morning I had my customary cup of coffee and then I pulled the salmon out of the fridge. Give the fillets a quick rinse with cold water and then pat them dry with a paper towel. Set up your fillets on a wire rack and place them in a cool and breezy area. Tough to do in Singapore but if you put it under the air conditioner and blast the fan, you’ll do just fine. From my last blog entry on the subject, the next step is a critical one that many people sadly omit. It’s THE step that will ensure your salmon is ready for smoking. What happens after about 2 hours of sitting in a cool breezy spot, the salmon fillets form a coat of pellicle, a thin lacquer-like layer on top of the salmon that will seal it in, also causing a sticky surface for the actual smoke to adhere to. Check out the photos. If you get a beautiful shine thats tacky to the touch…you’re golden!

Now, set your salmon on some grease proof paper and trim the edges. Place the fillets back onto the same wire rack and that will sit on top of your grid. Fire up the egg to a very cool 190 degrees F. Once there, add in two fist fulls of wood chips. Try to use any type of fruit wood as hickory or mesquite is just a bit too strong. For ours last night I used cherry wood and it worked a charm!

Once you’ve stabilized the temperature with a platesetter in place, chuck your rack on top of the grid and let it smoke, low and slow for the next 90 minutes. I’ve adjusted the time to account for reaching optimum ambient temperature and getting a good waft of smoke going.

After 90 minutes, pull off the rack and place it back in the same cool place. Once the fillets have reached room temperature, place them on a plate, wrap them in cling film and chuck them back in the fridge.

When you’re ready to serve, simply pull off the cling film and serve up with fresh rye bread and some Heather’s secret homemade cocktail sauce!

The verdict? 10/10 from the judges here at Chez Matla!

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Overall Heather Rating: 10/10 Again!!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend and don’t be shy, drop us a line if you like this or any other BGAE post!

Cheers, Roman

Fab Flower Crab

So last night we had our Chinese family over for dinner, the Goh’s…and as promised after months of pestering, I cooked up something quite special for our dear friends – FAB FLOWA KRAB! A delicious and simple variant on the Sri Lankan crab recipe that I’ve posted before. Only difference, flower crab and 5 minutes less on the old grill.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 12 live flower crabs
• 270 grams of unsalted melted butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• A good shaking of Old Bay
• A small piece of butter for each packet

Combine the above, minus the crab and set your steeping sauce aside and go get ready to “dispatch” the crab.

I went to the shop to pick up the crab live and once home I placed them into the freezer for about an hour. This puts them into a bit of a “dream state” and gets them ready for the razor sharp Chinese clever!!!! (insert evil laugh…..mwaaaaa haa haa haa!) To dispatch, simply flip the flower crab onto it’s back and chop! A really sharp clever comes in very handy but let me caution you…it’s dangerous work so sobriety helps at this stage!

Flower crab is small in comparison to Sri Lankan crab so instead of chopping the crab into quarters, simply halve them and chop off the claws. At this point, take a sheet of aluminium foil and make a packet that resembles a Hershey’s kiss. Take a decent helping of your steeping sauce and pour it over the crab and then add a small bit of butter and a good shaking of Old Bay. Do this for all of your crab and then you’re ready for the grill.

Stabilize your grill at 400 degrees F. Place your packets onto the grill and set your timer for 15 minutes. Once your timer pings, remove the packets carefully and place them into a big metal bowl. Don’t uncover the individual packets until you’re ready to eat them. Its also a nice way to serve up the crab to your guests.

We accompanied the flower crab with a great homemade potato salad, corn on the cob and Heather’s awesome cherry pie. All in all, a great meal with great people! Thanks to the Goh’s for helping us devour the crab!

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Overall Heather Rating: 9/10

PS – forgive me for the blurry photos, good help is hard to find these days – Uncle Goh is a lousy photographer but a great friend!

Snappy Little Fush….

Red Snapper. Beautiful in the sea and even more beautiful on a plate after its been grilled on the Big Green Asian Egg.

If you’re into really easy, takes almost no time to prep, tastes delicious within an hour kind of meals, then this one’s for you. Simple to do and great to share with a group of “hungries”!

This is what you’ll need:

• 1 whole Red Snapper – cleaned
• 10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 3 lemons, (1 thinly sliced and 2 for juice)
• 10 sprigs of rosemary, leaves only, roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• 2 Tbs water
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

To prepare the “fush”, Scottish for “fish” place it on a big cutting board and take a very sharp knife, slicing about 4 or 5 deep slits at a 45 degree angle from head to tail, nice and deep though not deep enough to remove the meat by cutting all the way through. Then add a few slivers of sliced garlic and a hefty pinch of chopped rosemary in each of the slits. Remember you’ll need to do both sides so take your time and do it with care. Once done, coat both sides of your fish with olive oil and give it a good seasoning of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Take whatever is left of your garlic and rosemary and stuff it into the cavity. Finally place the lemon slices across the sides of the fish, crimping one end of the lemon into each of the slits. Again, cram any leftover slices of lemon into the fish cavity. If you’re not ready for the grill, simply place your fish into a large platter and wrap it in cling film, stick it in the fridge and wait until your guests arrive.

The grill should be prepped for 350 degrees F and for direct cooking.  I pulled the fish out of the fridge about 20 minutes before I plonked it on the grill, bringing it up to room temperature as best as possible. Oil the grid with some vegetable oil and place the fish directly on the grid. Shut the lid of your grill and set the timer for 10 minutes. Once the first 10 minutes go by, flip the fish carefully (so as not to lose any of the contents) and grill for an additional 10 minutes. Once done, transfer the fish to a lightly oiled fish plate or any perforated grill pan – I used the one we use for pizzas. Set your timer for an additional 20 minutes.  You’ll know when you’re done if the fish becomes opaque and beautifully flakey. When ready, place the fish onto a serving platter, take the juice from your lemons, mix in 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 tablespoons of water – mix it all up and pour over the hot fish and serve immediately.

Heather served up a fennel, apple and walnut salad that was a brilliant compliment for this meal along with a bit of steamed white rice. Overall a great tasting fish for a Saturday night with friends.

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Overall Heather Rating: 8/10 (only because the smoked salmon kicks the gills off of any fish we’ll ever do on the egg!….fair point!)

 

Perfect 10 Again…

Let it be known that a perfect 10 can be achieved with the simplest of meals. Now, we’ve done this one before and have blogged it as well but you know, when something turns out this good, you just have to post another blog entry to rub it in.

Tonight, a slightly late Valentine’s meal (sorry Alex, you missed it!) Grilled lobster with COTC and feta salad. YUUUUM. The prep and the grilling time is so quick that you’ll be amazed at how easy this recipe is and hopefully, you’ll never pay premium bucks to have a lobster in a restaurant again! You can make this better than any restaurant if you’re using a hardwood charcoal grill, or even better, a Big Green Egg!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 cup ghee
• 2 x 1 1/2 pound East Coast lobster
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Preparation includes the nasty business of whacking your lobster. Simply put, a sharp chef’s knife to the head pretty much does the trick. Don’t be fooled though, the little guys will twitch and squirm for a while and so if you’re a bit squeamish, get someone else to do your dirty work. Under NO circumstances should you use pre-whacked or frozen lobster…you’ve got to have these bad boys fresh from the tank. This time round, the lobbies had about 15 minutes from tank to grill and the flavour proved it all!

Split your lobster from the tip of the head to the tip of the tail but make sure you don’t cut through it. Baste each lobster with melted ghee and then season with Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour about a quarter cup of heavy cream and plonk the lobsters shell side down on the grill.  The grill should be set at 500 degrees F as well as set for direct grilling.

Grill the lobsters for 8-10 minutes basting the meat with heavy cream every two minutes. Once done, remove the lobster, plate and devour.  Heather stayed completely quiet during dinner tonight and that can only mean one thing… A PERFECT 10!  Thanks baby, and Happy Valentines Day…albeit a bit late!

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Overall Heather Rating: 10/10

Testing, testing, 1,2,3…Smoking my own salmon…

Suplemental log! Tonight we made the perfect Pork Tenderloin but afterwards, Roman went out to play on the Big Green Egg by testing his first ever smoked salmon. Admittedly it was only a test but the result was un!@#$%&*!real!

When you purchase smoked salmon, you don’t even think about what goes into making it do you? Of course not, it’s convenient and not bad tasting. Now, if you actually hot smoke your own salmon? Well, the result can be incredible, as was the case tonight.

It all started with brining. The basic brine I used today included the following:

• 2 cups of water
• 1/8 cup Kosher salt
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Tablespoon dried fennel
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 4 cloves smashed garlic

Mix all the ingredients together and add the fish to a non-reactive container. I used a tupperware container with a lid, then moved it into the fridge for 4 hours to cure. This step can take longer of course but I was playing with one fairly small salmon fillet.

Once done, I removed the fish from the brine and washed it down, patting it dry then with kitchen roll. I set the fillet on a rack and then dried it in our living room under the air-con and ceiling fan. This is a critical step that many people omit. It’s THE step that will ensure your fish is ready for smoking. What happens after about 2 hours of drying, the fish forms a coat of pellicle, a thin lacquer-lie layer on top of the salmon that will seal it also causing a sticky surface for the actual smoke to adhere to. It all makes good scientific sense!

Step three means getting your smoker ready. In our case it was our trusty Big Green (Asian) Egg that was just coming back down from grilling pork tenderloin about an hour earlier. You want low temperatures for smoking and I tried to keep my egg around the 200 degree mark. Hard to do when the grill was nuclear hot only an hour earlier. I tried every trick I knew and still I struggled. So, the end result was that I settled for 275-300 for just under an hour. Of course you need your wood too and whilst battling the heat, I chucked in 3 fist fulls of apple wood, some of which was soaked. The result was an awesome fragrance that actually got the neighbours to perk up and ask what I was up to.

I placed the salmon in a make shift aluminium foil tray coated with vegetable oil.  That actually helped remove the skin once the fish was done smoking. At the 45 minute mark I knew we were close and I pulled the salmon off at 50 minutes. I then let it rest for about 5 minutes before flipping the foil tray over and then carefully peeling off the skin.  I then put the salmon fillet back on a rack to dry.  Once the temperature came down to about room temperature I wrapped it tightly in cling film and threw it in the fridge.

My darling wife and 14 year old son (both of which can eat their combined body weight in smoked salmon) unanimously agreed that at 9:30 pm we had to try it, else the test could not be confirmed. Well, you be the judge. Look at the Overall Heather Rating below and the pics.  I scored tonight with two amazing dishes and I can guarantee you that I’ll be smoking entire sides of salmon next!

Cheers!

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Overall Heather Rating: 11/10

Grilled Snapper with Melon Salsa & Sautéed Vegetables

Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year’s, Year of the Dragon!

As today is a public holiday, we decided that we’d grill something new tonight. Golden Snapper, a fish that’s quite common to these parts of the world, accompanied by a rock mellon and peach salsa and sautéed vegetables.

Here’s what you need for each of the three dishes that make up a great meal on the Big Green Egg, or any other grill for that matter.

Main Ingredients:

• 4 medium size golden snapper fillets (skin on)
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 2 TBS dried minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 pinch of cumin seed
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper for seasoning

Coat the fillets in olive oil and sprinkle the rub on top of the fish, no need to coat the skin side. Let it rest for a while and come up to room temperature.  The spices will set in nicely during this time as well.

Sautéed vegetables:

• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 a butternut squash, thinly sliced
• 1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 2 TBS quality olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper for seasoning

Simply cut up your veg and sauté the above in a pan with a bit of olive oil until the vegetables are done, about 5-7 minutes on medium/high heat.  Don’t overdo it here…nothing worse than limp vegetables, you want to maintain a bit of crunch to them.

Fresh Fruit Salsa:

• 1/2 Rock melon (cantaloupe), diced
• 3 peaches, pitted and diced
• 1 small cucumber, diced
• 2 TBS cilantro, chopped finely
• Juice of 1 fresh lime
• Kosher salt, to taste

Once chopped and diced, mix it all up and then place the bowl into the fridge to keep in nice and cold before you plate up the meal.

Prepare your salsa and then cook your vegetables. Set them aside with a lid on the pan to keep them warm.  Now go and get that fish on!

Spark up the grill to 500 degrees F about 30 minutes before you’re ready to grill. Make sure the flames have died down a bit and you’re grilling on smoldering charcoal (should look like the inside of a volcano if you’ve ever been in one!) Make sure your grid is oiled nicely so that the fish won’t stick once done. Place the fish on the grid for no more than 10 minutes and let the BGE do the rest. Remove the fish and now plate the rest of your ingredients.

The family and I really enjoyed this recipe. A bit of a faff to prepare the salsa and vegetables, but well worth it in the end. I really like the smokey taste that infused into the fish and the garlic/spice coating was absolutely amazing. The grilled veg was tasty and the salsa was really, really, really good and provided a great cool balance to the earthy fish and veg.

Simple and tasty!

Oh, by the way, this post is dedicated to the “losers” at work that are trying hard to get fit and healthy! 4 1/2 more weeks team!

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Overall Heather Rating: 8/10

“Philly” Crab Singapore Style

Philly Crab

Not a crustacean homage to a fine Pennsylvania town. Not a misspelled version of Singapore’s national dish, “Chili” Crab. Not a dish served with soft, spreadable cream cheese.  No, Philly Crab is a new recipe that I’ve pulled together and a culinary dedication to my pal Phil Ventresca! Sorry Phil, Bostons’ a bit far to send a sample so you’ll just need to come over this way for a treat like no other.

Simply put, if you’ve ever wanted to learn how to prepare and thoroughly devour possibly the BEST crab ever…read on! Last night we had our pals Barb and Brett over for an impromptu seafood dinner along with a few bottles of cheap wine, an amazing German-style potato salad, spinach salad and grilled corn on the cob. The showpiece consisted of 4 Sri Lankan Crabs grilled on the Big Green Asian Egg.

The recipe and preparation is so incredibly simple it’s almost unreal. Philly Crab can also be prepared on a gas grill as well though I must admit, the smokey flavour that a hard wood charcoal grill provides adds something quite special to this crab.

Ingredients

• 4 live Sri Lankan crabs, a total of 2.8kg
• 270 grams of unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 4 slices of unsalted butter (in addition to the above)
• A good shaking of Old Bay

Here’s what to do

For the steeping sauce, combine all the ingredients above and in the same sequence as above (minus the crab) over medium heat. Once combined, put the sauce to one side and move onward to the crab.

Remember that these crabs were bought fresh from the market and promptly put into the freezer to help them drift into a lovely dream state – I only had them in there for about 50 minutes. Remove the crabs from the freezer and dispatch each of them as humanely as possible (a nice way of saying, help them meet their maker, but quickly) Now take a heavy and sharp clever and chop the crab in half, then chop off the claws where they connect to the body, then finally crack the claws with the back of the clever. This helps with removing the meat easily once the crab is cooked.  Now rinse all the gunk off the crabs with cold water  leaving all the meat but removing the mud, silt and guts.

  

At this point you can fire up your grill to medium heat – 400 degrees F will do just fine. While it heats up, take some heavy duty aluminium foil and put in your quartered crab. Add a chunk of butter in the centre and sprinkle a good portion of Old Bay onto the crab. Gently close the foil packet into a sort of pocket, leaving the top open just enough to pour your steeping sauce in. (It should look like a big silver clove of garlic.) Take your prepared four packets out to the grill, plonk them onto the grid and then add in four equal measures of the steeping sauce. (Best to do this over the grill to avoid spillage but be careful of the flare ups that the butter will cause!)

At this point all you need to do is close the dome of your grill and let it sit undisturbed for 20 minutes.  That’s it.

After 20 minutes the crab will turn a beautiful shade of red and the aroma coming off the grill will send your taste buds into overdrive. Carefully remove each packet and simply dump the contents (especially the steeping sauce) into a big metal bowl.  Do this with each packet and then cover the top with some foil.  Take it out to the table and let the crab rest for about 5 minutes as you prepare the rest of the table.

When you and your guests are ready to chow down, simply remove the foil and dig right in.  The meat is tender, moist and deliciously good. Honestly, the best crab I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of crab!  So, thanks to Barb, Brett, Heather and Phil (for the inspiration) we had another major win with the Big Green Asian Egg!

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Overall Heather Rating (unanimous I might add): 10/10

Cedar Planked Salmon with Garden Herb Pesto

So last night we had two salmon steaks for grilling and the challenge was to use as much from the home garden as possible to create something we’ve never done before. Personally I love a fresh pesto and so I went out and grabbed a big handful of parsley, similar amount of mint, 3 Kaffir limes and then I raided the pantry for olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, fresh ginger, salt and pepper.  That was pretty much it and it proved to be a simple and delicious meal.

To prep the pesto, simply combine the parsley, mint, lime juice, lime zest (from one lime), 4 cloves of garlic, 1 tbs fresh ginger and 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in your blender.  Whizzzzz it around until you get a really nice pesto consistency.  At this point I toasted up about 3 tablespoons of pine nuts and set them aside to cool  Once done, add them into the pesto mix and blast it twice to keep the pine nuts relatively coarse.

    

Whilst preparing everything, I soaked a cedar plank for about 2 hours.  We love the taste of cedar smoked salmon and I will try this recipe once again simply on the grill but for last night, we went with the smokey flavour of the cedar instead.

Prepare your plank by patting the top dry and then add your olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Place the salmon steaks on the plank and then use up about 2/3 of the pesto and coat each of the steaks.  Keep the last third for your plate.  Now I let these sit and come up to room temperature under a glass dish for about 30 minutes (that’s just enough time to let the salmon marinate nicely without staring to cook it with the acid of the lime.)

    

Set your grill to direct heat and stabilize at 400 degrees F. Place the plank and the salmon on the grill, shut the dome and let it rip for 20 minutes. That timing has always worked for us given the size of the steaks we purchase at the market.  Once done, slice the salmon and distribute evenly between your guests – in my case it was Heather, Alex and Kalyna (and a bit left over for me.)  Along with this dish I served up some basmati/onion rice and some steamed corn.

Hope you find this one as tasty as we all did!

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Overall Heather Rating: 7/10

“Fishzilla” aka Snakehead

Ok, so it’s not the prettiest looking fish in the world but it sure is tasty! Last night we grilled the legendary “Fishzilla” otherwise known as Snakehead or Channidae in Latin.

Lots of controversy surrounds this gilled menace.  In the US State of Maryland, it wreaked havoc on fresh water ecosystems by climbing swiftly to the top of the food chain (Nat Geo article) You’ve just gotta have some fish that’s as tough as that!

In Asia, the docile and fun loving snakehead is a bit of a delicacy in countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Often found trudging around in filthy drainage ditches, the snakehead has progressed and is now commercially farmed across the region.  They were also the cheapest fillets I found at the fish monger the other week as well.  Right, that said we embarked on a reminder to this little fishy that WE are at the top of the food chain around here!

Preparing the fish:

• 200g snakehead fish fillet, sliced thickly (2 fillets)
• 5 teaspoons plain yoghurt
• 3 teaspoons prawn paste
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Spicy Dipping Sauce:

• 1 teaspoon prawn paste
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 red chili padi, chopped

Fish Topping:

• 1 tablespoon fresh dill
• 2 stalks spring onion, cut thinly
• 1 red chili padi, sliced
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon roasted peanuts

The preparation for this dish is very easy and took less than half an hour from start to finish.  In fact, the basmati rice that I cooked up with this fish took longer.  Set your grill up for direct heat and stabilize the temperature at 400 degrees F.

Now while you’re waiting for the grill to settle, prepare your fish marinade by combining the yogurt, prawn paste and sugar in a bowl. Mix it well and ensure a nice creamy light brown consistency. From there you simply add your fish fillets to a zip top bag and then pour the marinade inside.  Squish it around a bit to ensure an even coating then let it sit f0r about 15 minutes.

You can also prep your dipping sauce ahead of time by simply combining the ingredients listed above and you’re done.

The fish goes directly on a lightly oiled grill for 7 minutes per side over medium heat.  Flip and check that your fish is cooking properly and leave it on a while longer if you think it’s not cooked through all the way.  Here’s a great little guide to use if you’re not sure about grilling fish: click here

OK, let’s assume that the fish has achieved a lovely golden brown apperance and is ready for serving.  Plate your fillets and then with a clean hand, top each fillet with the topping and then drizzle the remaining lime juice on top. Add some basmati rice to the side and you’re done.  Snakehead on a plate!

The result tonight was interesting.  Not the best fish we’ve ever grilled but certainly the most unique.  The texture of the snakehead was more like chicken though it kept all of its moisture.  The marinade really helped a lot and the red chili kicked up the heat factor.  All in all, a great and simple meal that we’d try again…perhaps with another white fish.

Overall Heather Rating: 7/10

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