Up until now I’ve been an advocate of buying frozen bags of white fish. At the end of the day, it’s healthy, it’s cheap and works well in recipes like fish and chips. You can also keep it in the freezer so it's ready for when you need it. However, this weekend I decided to treat the other half to a slightly more luxurious Friday night dinner than usual - we got our new bistro-style garden furniture this week so it just felt like the right thing to do to christen it!
I took a trip to the fish counter at my local supermarket where a bargain caught my eye (I’m proud of that pun) – 2 Sea Bream for £4, or if you’re American, $6.20! And how did I cook them, simply cut 3 slits into each side of the fish and stuff with sliced garlic and a slice of lemon.
Next step (and what better way to cook them), throw them on the BBQ (thanks Dad for the birthday present) for 6-7 minutes each side – that’s all, nothing fancy! And why nothing fancy? Well I couldn’t quite believe how much more flavour fresh/whole fish has in comparison to it’s frozen counterpart. Coupled with the lovely charcoal flavour, these tasted absolutely sublime with hardly any effort.
I’ve always been a little scared of cooking fresh fish (mainly because they’re looking straight back at me saying “don’t cook me”), but it couldn’t be easier. If you're worried about the bones, you'll often find the finer ones aren't so much of an issue once the fish has been cooked. I'm not sure if they melt under the heat, but I was only dealing with the big/obvious ones to remove.
And what to serve it with? If you're cooking on the BBQ, I'd certainly recommend making this into a fresh fish salad - It's a pure delight to eat during the hot weather. Simply get a normal bag of salad and mix it with some goodies - I'd recommend Beetroot, Olives, Tomatoes, Spring Onions and Capers (to name a few) - the more the merrier (that way you won't get bored of salad)! Check out my Salmon Salad recipe which has a great salad with it to go perfectly with a freshly barbecued Sea Bream.
So next time you’re in the supermarket, take a trip past the fish counter, pick up a Sea Bream and try grilling one of your own – you’ll love it.
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