Usually you get your fish already cleaned a scaled if you go to the fish counter. But a fisherman does not only need to catch his fish, he also needs to clean and prepare it. We have here some great fish for BBQ like the hamour (unfortunately over fished, see page 34) or the Barracuda and the Sheri.
The best way to prepare a fish on the BBQ is to fry it and when it’s done just put some salt, pepper and a bit of lemon to preserve the pure and delight taste of the fish. If you ever tried to cook fish on the BBQ you recognized that especially fish with soft meat will fall apart and will not look nice any more. The best way is to fry it with the skin, it will keep the meet juicy and in one piece. You can make half fillets with the skin remaining or put smaller fish in one piece on the BBQ (cleaned of course).
Now the fishy part! All the mentioned fish have scales, bigger or smaller ones. If you don’t remove the scales, you can’t eat the skin and even if you don’t like 
to eat the skin the scales will be everywhere on the BBQ and your food. If a fish is prepared in the right way it’s a tasty and easy thing to eat. There are several ways of scaling a fish. Who has scales a fish so far will know it could be a messy thing because How to scale ‘easily ‘ a fish. while you are scaling the fish, the scales can fly all around the kitchen.
There are special fish knives with a special side for scaling. It’s looking like a saw but it’s blunt (not sharp). Alternatively you can use a normal sharp kitchen knife with a strong blade. Put the blade vertical to the fish skin / scales and rub of the scales. The best way is to rub against the direction they are grown. Now you will see how far the scales are flying and if they pop off they will go in all directions. The bad thing is the scales are very sticky and hard to remove from the sink, cupboards and tiles. To prevent flying scales put the fish in the sink and do the procedure under running water. The better way is to put the fish in a plastic bag und scale it in there. The advantage is you are not wasting water and for sure no scale will go anywhere except the bag, the disadvantage you have to work blind because you don’t see what you are doing in the bag. When you are finish with one side wash the scales off and move your hand over the skin of the fish. Now it should feel like leather. If you feel remaining scales repeat
the procedure.
Here is my secret trick and in my opinion the best way to scale a fish. Get a metal sponge for cleaning pots and use this one instead of a knife. It works pretty well especially if you do it inside a bag. But usually the scales are not flying because they are covered with the sponge, so the whole procedure is much easier. The only thing is, you can use the sponge only for one day because you will be not able to clean it. For some fish with big scales this method might not work properly for small scales it’s perfect. Try it out, it’s very simple and no fish taste better like your own catch.
Outdoor Cuisine
A Recipe for Fish:
After all the work scaling the fish, cooking needs to be fast. Following an easy but great recipe which you can prepare at home and put on the BBQ later or you could cook in the oven. You can take more or less any fish and any size but small fish, fish steaks or fish fillets are best. It is important to keep the scaled fish in one piece.
1. Take your freshly scaled fish, remove the head and fins.
2. Now cut some vegetables e.g. zucchini, garlic, onion,
small tomatoes, olives, some artichoke hearts and parsley into big pieces.
3. To speed up the cooking time, you can fry also the vegetables
in some olive oil for a few minutes in the pan, or
proceed directly to step 4.
4. Take a big piece of aluminum foil, big enough to cover
all the fish and vegetables. Now put some of the mixed
vegetables onto one half of the foil, then the fish and then
another layer of vegetables.
5. Add some pepper and salt or soy sauce. Now fold the
foil into a pocket to cover everything and keep the juices
inside. Try to fold it as tightly as possible.
6. Either put the packed fish in the oven for about 15minutes
at 200C° or put it in your cool box and BBQ it later
somewhere outdoors. If you are going to BBQ the fish, it is
better to make small pockets with only one piece of fish
inside each. For bigger fish it’s also better to use fillets but
with the skins on.
Bon appétit!
Published in September 2010
