Grilled Whole Fish + Potatoes + Mixed Greens

We had another fantastic Saturday today, taking advantage of the great weather (before the strange ocean fog rolled in and cooled things off) by attending the SoWa Antiques Market which kicked off this weekend in the South End of Boston. It goes every weekend for the rest of the summer and it’s definitely worth checking out. This weekend was the opening weekend and it was also the South End’s Art Walk which was fantastic – I am always amazed by the never ending stream of talented artists that roll out in this city. 

On the way home I hit WholeFoods to grab some oysters and some other random items and came home with this looker (above) – a Strawberry Grouper. I’ve never seen this before but it looked good so I thought I would give it a shot. Since the whole red snapper I did a while back was such a success, I am feeling more confident about cooking whole fish. Additionally, we’ve been using the grill a lot more often now that the weather is good, so this meal was almost exclusively made on the grill. 

The oysters were excellent (Blue Point – wild) and we enjoyed them with some lemon juice and fresh made cocktail sauce (I like mine with lots of horseradish).

But on to the main attraction – a nearly 2lb whole grouper with the gorgeous strawberry color. We stuffed it with the following:

1 shallot, minced,

4-5 very thin slices of lemon

3-4 chives, chopped 

pinch of salt

And then coated the outside of the fish with olive oil before placing it on a hot grill. 

The fish takes about 25 minutes to cook all the way through on the grill, and you will want to be careful that it doesn’t stick to the grill (and then you leave fishy bits on there). Turn it about 15 minutes into it so that both sides get good and crispy. Be careful for all the little bones.  The grouper is nice and flaky and takes on good flavor from the stuffing.

At the same time you are getting the fish together, you can grill the potatoes, at they take about the same amount of time to cook. On a large piece of tin foil (large enough to make a pouch for the potatoes) place the following:

10-12 baby red potatoes, whole

2 teaspoons of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

chopped chives

5-6 ramp bulbs (the white part only), sliced

pinch of salt

If you haven’t had ramps, they are like spring onions and they are only available for a short period of time. They are delicious and you can eat both the bulb and the greens. I trim the reddish part of the stem off since that is a little more bitter. 

Make a pouch with the tin foil so the potatoes steam as well as get nice and caramelized on the grill. Place the pouch right onto the grill for a good 25 minutes.  The leftover potatoes make excellent hash browns the following morning – cut them in chunks and saute in a pan with some onions, your favorite spices and a touch of olive oil.

For the mixed greens – I took the greens from the ramps, some watercress, and some pea shoots and sauteed them with  a little olive oil, garlic and salt for about 3 minutes until they wilted (I browned the garlic very lightly before I tossed the greens in). 

Excellent fast and easy summer-ish dinner!