This morning at breakfast my wife, Linda, showed me a recipe from "The Grilling Issue" of "Bon Appetit" magazine. The recipe involved grilling a whole fish - head, tail and all. Having yet to attempt this culinary feat I was intrigued. The ingredients for the recipe included a suggested list of appropriate fish one of which was branzino.
I had encountered branzino twice before in Italy - once in a trattoria in Sorento and again at a local restaurant not far from the villa at which we were staying on Lake Como. Branzino is what the northern Italians call European sea bass. It is a white fish with a delicate flavor and has only recently been showing up in markets in this country. On both occasions it was served in a salt encrusted shell which kept the meat of the fish succulent and moist and, after being expertly fileted table side, was drizzled with an herb infused olive oil sauce. Yum!
So, a quick call to my local fish monger, Peter's seafood in Midland Park, and I had secured a 1.5 pound specimen which I asked them to scale and gut. When it comes to food from the sea Peters is the first place I think of. They get their produce from Fulton's fish market in New York City each morning so you can be sure it's fresh. They also supply several of our favorite restaurants. Wild branzino can cost as much as $30 per pound but this was farm raised and was a much more reasonable $8.99 per pound.
After a quick internet search on branzino I found a complimentary recipe that included a rosemary vinaigrette to be drizzled over the fish right before it is served. It reminded me of the dishes I had had during my two visits to Italy so I decided to combine the recipes. While Linda prepared the sauce I prepared the fish. I made 3 to 4 angled slices in both sides of the body of the fish. This would ensure the meat would cook quickly and evenly. I then salted both sides with sea salt and set it aside while I fired up the grill.
Whether using a charcoal or a gas grill - I used my gas grill for this - it's best to season the grill grates with oil to reduce the likelihood of the fish sticking to the grates. While there are several ways to do this my preferred way is to use a paper towel folded over several times, blot vegetable oil on it and use a long handled pair of tongs to rub it on the grates.
I found handling a whole fish a little challenging it being 12 to 14 inches long. I used a pair of tongs and a spatula to get the fish onto the grill and closed the lid. The recipe called for cooking the fish for 5 minutes at medium high heat and then flipping it and cooking it for another 3 to 5 minutes. Even though I had seasoned the grates with oil the fish was still sticking so I gently used the spatula to lift the fish and flip it. Not gently enough as I lost most of the skin from the one side. Oh well, I sighed, closed the lid and hoped for the best.
After about 4 minutes a quick read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the fish showed a temperature of about 145F. I had no idea if this was good or not since I had little experience grilling fish. The meat of the fish looked nice and flaky so I decided to go with it. I had better luck removing the fish from the grill and, once inside, transferred it from the plate to the cutting board.
As I looked down at the now cooked fish I realized I had no idea how to filet a fish. The ones I had had in Italy had been fileted by the waiters. I started by removing the head and placing it in the sink. So far so good. I slid the knife between the meat and the backbone of the fish and began cutting down towards the tail. I then slid the knife length wise under the meat and separated it from the bones. But as I turned to place the meat on the plate on the island behind me the thing fell apart and two pieces fell on the floor. After a few choice words I quickly scooped up the meat from the floor and placed them on the plate - not a pretty sight. So, this would be my serving I decided.
I separated the backbone from the remaning fish on the cutting board, cut off the tail and moved the cutting board to the island before placing the fish on Linda's plate. Much better. As I cleaned up the floor and the cutting board Linda drizzled the sauce on the fish. We finally sat down to eat the fish which smelled wonderful. To go with our fish we had a shrimp cocktail with freshly made cocktail sauce, two ears of fresh Jersey corn from Abma's farm market in Wyckoff and a French loaf courtesy of Mr. Pillsbury. Mrs. Pillsbury? Whatever.
As I pulled a slice of bread from the loaf to give to Linda I knocked over my water glass spilling water everywhere. A mad dash to the kitchen to retrieve paper towels ensued and a few more choice words for good measure. After all the mistakes the end result was thankfully worth it. The fish was cooked perfectly - very moist and quite tasty, though I did miss having some crunchy skin to go with it. The rosemary vinaigrette complimented the fish wonderfully. We'll definitely be keeping that part of the recipe for other dishes as well. As for the branzino, even with my many mistakes and lack of experience with cooking fish the meal turned out well and I'll definitely be trying this one again soon with better knowledge of what to expect.
The title of this blog - "It's a Fish" - is a quote from a waiter in Italy. On our first trip we had dinner at a restaurant in a small town on Lake Trasimeno called Castiglione del Lago. I had read in one of our guide books that the lake fish was a local delicacy. While I wasn't hungry enough to eat a whole fish I found a fish salad on the menu so I ordered that as an appetizer. It was delicious, but there were quite a few little silvery bones. So, I only ate about half the salad having satisfied my curiosity with the local fish and not wanting to end up in an Italian emergency room with a bone stuck in my throat. When the waiter came to clean up our dishes he looked at mine and asked "What, you no like?" I replied that I "liked" very much but there were just too many bones. He looked at me quizzically and exclaimed "It's a fish!" and probably thought "Stupid American, what do you expect?" It's been a running joke in our family ever since.
