Sea Bass Over Coals

Fish cooked outdoors on a charcoal barbecue can be a great experience; enjoyable to cook and also to taste.

For this meal I also added some chunky chips and vegetable skewers. Potato can be slow to cook, so I cheated a little by pre-cooking the  ships in some butter and coconut oil before letting them cool. I reheated later with indirect heat while grilling the vegetable skewers directly over the charcoal.

But that’s all garnish compared to the fish. This recipe is a bit of a mix of different ones I’ve done over the years, but I think this was the best one yet. Here is what I used:

• Butter - about 2 tablespoons
• Garlic cloves, crushed - about 6
• Juice of half a lime
• Brown sugar - 2 tablespoons
• Water - about 4 tablespoons
• White rice vinegar - about 2 tablespoons
• Soy sauce - about 2 tablespoons
• Chilli paste - 1 tablespoon
• Ginger paste - 2 tablespoons
• Ground black pepper - about a teaspoon
• Fresh herbs; chopped: basil, thyme and chives

The recipe is pretty straightforward, I heated the butter in a little saucepan directly over the heat until it melted. I added all the rest of the ingredients except the fresh herbs and brought the sauce to a gentle simmer. As I removed the sauce from the heat, I added the fresh herbs.

My little saucepan, shown in the picture, is not fully oven proof. I can’t put the lid on the barbecue here because the handle will melt. But for cooking the fish I have a fully cast iron frying pan that is fully oven safe.

These sea bass were pretty small and did not take long to cook. Maybe a max of ten minutes. I used the direct heat from the charcoal to first melt some butter before adding the four pieces, skin down.

Pour over the sauce to allow it to sizzle and then pop the barbecue lid on. About halfway through, I poured a little more of the sauce on. The rest of the sauce can be poured over when serving.

With the lid on the chips and veg are kept nice and warm, but I used some tin foil to keep the heat in while preparing the sauce.