Barbecued fish is one of my favorite dishes. Smell off smoky fish mixed with scent of garlic, olive oil and parsley is irresistible! I got my first taste and experience with my dad grilling fish using “gradele”. Gradele is a type of a local style basic barbecue. It is simple rectangular shape frame with parallel round bar griddle with size about 37.5 cm x 50 cm (15″x 20″). In each corner of the frame there is a short supporting leg, only about 6 cm (2.5″) long, and also there is usually a handle about 25 cm (10″) long, for easier handling. Needless to say that these tools were all homemade by our dads who were skilled tradesmen.
The interesting thing is that not every household had their own gradele. Instead we shared 2-3 among many families. Barbecuing was sort of a luxury as I was growing up so it was not that difficult to get the gradele when you needed them. They were just sitting there by the common area for barbecuing that everybody used, usually just leaning against the stone wall. The only thing you had to bring was your own dried grapevine branches and you were good to go! Yes grapevine branches were primary and most desired fire source. When starting the fire the stack was fairly tall, but by the time it turned to embers it was near level with the ground. At the begging of the roasting people commonly would insert small rocks under the gradele’s legs to keep it higher above the hot embers, half the way through the cooking as the heat subsidies the rocks were removed.
The fish barbecuing recipe was very simple: freshly caught fish, salt, pepper, garlic, Italian parsley, olive oil. The fish was cleaned up, washed and dried. After that it was salted thoroughly. Before it was laid on hot gradele the fish was “drawn through” or dipped into the mixture of olive oil, finely chopped garlic and parsley and ground black pepper. Any time the fish was turned the same mixture was used to moisten the side that came off the heat. The result was incredibly tasty and moist barbecued fish that was a real treat! My parents usually served it with fresh cut tomato salad and that is the taste I like. This recipe remined my reference for a good tasting barbecued fish to this day.
I tried to replicate the above recipe when barbecuing on my Weber charcoal barbecue, but it did not work the same. The heat was too intense, even if reducing the amount of charcoal used. Gentle ambers of dry grapevine branches and “gradele” placed just few inches above the embers seem to be irreplaceable and better design for fish roasting.
Instead I use the recipe described below. It works well for either barbecue or oven roasting and I tried it for a variety of different fish: sea bass, red snapper, sea bream. From the beginning of preparation to plating it takes about an hour which makes it very fast recipe, but nevertheless exceptionally tasty!
I am not sure where I got the original recipe, It is written in my recipe handbook as “Greek Oven Baked Sea Bream”.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Servings |
fish
|
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 3-4 tbsp Italian parsley finely chopped
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 3 round cross lemon slices each slice cut in half
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3-4 red snapper or sea bream, sea bass
- coarse sea salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- olive oil for drizzling
- fresh lemon juice for drizzling
- 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 50 g fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp dry oregano
- 1 tbsp filtered water
- fine sea salt
Ingredients
Stuffing
Baking
Dressing
|
|
- Finely chop garlic and parsley. Put it in a small bowl and mix together with salt, ground pepper and olive oil.
- Cut 3 round slices across the lemon, each 5 mm thick. Cut each slice in half for a total of 6 half slices.
- In a small bowl add and whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, dry oregano, water, salt and ground pepper.
- Wash and dry the fish.
- Preheat the oven, rack in the middle to 180ºC (356ºF).
- Use sharp knife to make 2 incisions (angled to the fish long axis) on each fish side.
- Place the fish on large parchment paper lined baking sheet.
- Open up and season inside the fish with salt.
- Fill inside of each fish with about 1 tsp of stuffing mixture, insert 2 lemon half slices.
- Season outside of each fish with salt.
- Divide and insert some stuffing in all incisions on fish sides.
- Season each fish side with ground black pepper.
- Drizzle both sides of each fish with olive oil.
- Drizzle both sides of each fish with lemon juice.
- Bake for 30 minutes with rack in the middle and the last 10 minutes rise the rack to about 10 cm (4") from the top. Watch it so it doesn't burn!
- Drizzle the dressing all over the baked fish (~5 tbsp/fish), sprinkle with dry oregano and serve immediately!
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