Does the idea of cooking a whole fish intimidate you? Maybe gross you out a bit? It certainly did both for me. It’s those dead eyes staring at me from the seafood counter, like they know something. I didn’t grow up in a culture that ate much fish, let alone whole fish. Save for the once a year camping trips with amateur fishing attempts led by my more experienced uncles. If we ever caught anything notable, the prep and cooking was up to them. I wouldn’t get near my catch.
This project has grown and stretched me in countless ways. This project asked me to cook a whole fish – and I’m so much the better for it.
I started the journey at Whole Foods, where I purchased two pounds of branzino’s. I asked the man at the counter if the fish were “gutted and scaled,” just like Alison told me to. What those terms meant, I wasn’t totally sure. He picked up a fish and showed me how it had been cut open and gutted already, but then said it hadn’t been scaled. I asked him if he could do it for me, to which he replied with a reluctant nod. It took him about 4 minutes to scale both fish. He shaved the scales on either side with a small, sharp knife, and the scales flew everywhere. While watching him, I thanked my lucky stars that I didn’t have to do this in my kitchen and face the clean-up afterward.
That afternoon, I prepped the preserved lemon relish by finely chopping a full preserved lemon (I had a jar of homemade ones that I preserved about three months ago). If you don’t have any preserved lemon on hand, you can find jars of them in the grocery store. To the relish I added grated garlic, olive oil, and white wine vinegar. And lots of pepper with a dash of salt. This relish was fantastic to pair with the salty, tender white fish. It absolutely completed the dish.
Later that evening, I journeyed to my in-laws for more meal prep and dinner. They own a grill, so I’m making all of Alison’s grill recipes there this summer. Prepping the fish there was so simple. The fish were already cut from the gutting, so I simply placed a few thin lemon slices in each, then sprayed the outside of the fish with canola oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.
With the grill on medium-high heat, we placed the fish horizontally over the grate, with the backbone facing us. After 9 minutes, the skin was charred, crisped, and puffy. We were ready to flip it over. 8 more minutes and the fish was ready to serve! Alison asks you to grill a lemon for 5 minutes. We did this, but it didn’t add much more than aesthetic appeal, especially with the relish already on the side.
The fish was perfectly moist, flaky and tender, and honestly barely tasted like actual fish. Jordan said this is his favorite “unexpected” meal of the project so far. Cooking a whole fish was SO much easier than it looked. So much more delicious than I anticipated. This dish made me feel like I can do anything! And you can too.
98 recipes cooked, 127 to go.
