Whole Red Snapper

With my wife's sister and her family in to stay with us for Memorial Day weekend, we decided to try something that they have been wanting to do for a while; cooking a whole fish. This is a common thing in the Philippines, but not as much so here. I've eaten whole fish, but never cooked one myself (at least anything larger than a trout).

Prepped and ready for the grill

I bought a 4.5 pound red snapper from Whole Foods, and had them clean it, scale it and remove the fins. Prepping it was easy since it was already cleaned. All I did was slip a knife between the filet and the backbone on one side to enlarge the cavity, and then stuffed it with lemon slices, leeks, and fresh dill sprigs. I tied it with butchers twine to hold it together and placed it directly on the grill. The grill was at about 400F, and all I did was oil the bars, lightly oil the outside of the fish, and sprinkle with kosher salt. The fishmonger said the skin was tough enough to hold up to the direct grilling, so there was no need for foil or anything. After 15 minutes, I rolled it over. After another 15 minutes I pulled it off the grill after checking that the flesh on the inside was opaque and flaky.

On the table

We served it by simply placing it on a platter, drizzling a little basil infused olive oil over it, and then let people dig in. It was so tender and juicy that chunks fell off easily and you could just scoop portions out with a fork and serving spoon. Red snapper is a very mild white fish, and would be a good thing to serve to people who are not hard-core seafood eaters.

Ravaged...

It was absolutely delicious, very very easy, and as you can see, there were no leftovers. One 4.5 pound red snapper fed four adults and a couple of children.

Work involved - stuff, tie, grill, eat. As easy as that.
Time - 10 minutes to prep, 30 minutes to cook.
Cleanup - Super easy. A cutting board and a knife, or if you can work on the fish wrapper, only a knife.
Rating - 9 out of 10. Simple seasoning highlights the delicate flavor of the fish, and that coupled with the almost non-existent prep and cleanup effort makes this a huge winner.