Grilled Sea Bream
Sea Bream can be cooked so many ways but this recipe is possibly one of the simplest and lets the fish and the Big Green Egg speak for themselves. Too often we completely overwhelm really lovely ingredients with strong flavours. Having said that I’d happily take on a deep fried sea bream with Thai spices, it was one of my favourite dishes when I was lucky enough to visit Thailand.
Sea Bream is a native fish to our UK waters in the very south west so you can even go out and catch your own. I’ve been fishing for them, totally unsuccessfully but that pretty much sums up my fishing skills.
For this recipe we cook on the back of the cast iron grid, the side with the wider bars.
Cooking surfaces
BBQ Temperature
Ingredients
- 1 or 2 Sea Bream
- 1 lemon
- Bunch dill
- Maldon Salt
- Black Pepper
- Olive oil
Method
- Either ask your fish monger to gut and scale your fish or do it for yourself. both are easy to do.
- Cut three deep cuts into each side of the fish. This will allow it to cook more evenly but you can also use these cuts to judge how the flesh is cooking.
- Stuff the cavity of the fish with some lemons slices and some dill (you can substitute in coriander for a slightly different flavour).
- Lightly oil and salt your bream on both sides, DO NOT add the pepper at this stage, it’ll burn on the grill and turn really bitter.
- Setup your Egg for a direct cook at 200°C with the cast iron grid with the wider bars facing upwards.
- Just before you put the fish on the grill, wipe the cast iron bars with some oil soaked kitchen roll.
- Place the fish onto the oiled bars and cook with the lid shut for 4-5 minutes.
- Turn your fish and check in one of the slashes that the flesh at the bone has turned from translucent to a white flesh, If not turn back and cook a little longer.
- After a further 4-5 mins check the other side of your fish has cooked.
- Serve with some coarsely ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
Notes
For a Thai style Sea Bream, make a marinade of 2 garlic cloves finely chopped, 1 red chilli chopped , juice from a lime, coarsely chopped coriander, maldon salt and some olive oil. Smother on the bream and leave for a couple of hours before cooking.