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Fish Grilled on Skewers
For grilling, do not skin the fish. Cut in small slices 11/2inch thick. Season with salt and pepper, lay in a dish, pour over 1/2 cup red wine and let stand 2 hours. Drain and wipe dry. Use long wooden skewers, and stick slices on in pairs with skin sides together, with 1 small bay leaf between each pair. Have grill very hot, or cook over hot coals. When fish has begun to grill brush with melted butter. Remove skewers and chop-chop!
Bay leaves can be picked fresh in many camping sections and fresh ones are sweeter than dried, of course.
It's worth remembering that metal skewers are apt to give a strange taste to fish and if no wood is handy on a sandy beach, for instance, you'd better take along silverplated ones. 2-POUND FISH
A camp-fire method that works just as well on a backyard grill: firm fish, a short red-wine soak, and bay leaves pressed between the slices so their oil perfumes the fish as it cooks.
- The hinge: skin side inPairing the slices with skin sides together shields the flesh from direct radiant heat and lets each pair cook as one thick piece. Get this backwards and the exposed cut surfaces dry out before the centre is done.
- Cut sizeThe slice thickness is given as one and a half inches, about 4 cm. Anything thinner will overcook before it takes colour; anything much thicker will not cook through in the few minutes a hot grill allows.
- Choice of fishThis suits firm, oily fish that hold together on a skewer — mackerel, bluefish, salmon, bonito, striped bass. Delicate flaking white fish will fall off the skewer partway through.
- The wine soakHalf a cup of red wine over a two-pound fish is a flavour and colour treatment, not a tenderiser. The two hours given is ample; refrigerate rather than leaving it out, and wipe the slices genuinely dry or they will steam instead of searing.
- SkewersSoak wooden skewers 30 minutes so they do not burn through. The warning about metal is largely obsolete: modern stainless steel is inert and imparts no taste, though flat skewers grip better than round ones. Silverplate is not needed.
- Heat and timingVery hot coals, ashed over and glowing. Because the slices cook in pairs the bundle is effectively double thickness, so allow several minutes a side and judge by the fish rather than the clock; brush with butter only once the surface has set, or it will flare.
- Bay leavesFresh bay is sweeter than dried, as the text says, but confirm you have true bay (Laurus nobilis) rather than a look-alike shrub before picking wild. Dried leaves work — soak them briefly so they do not char to ash.
- Yield and servingA two-pound fish serves two generously or three modestly. The instruction to remove the skewers and eat at once is the point: skewered fish stiffens and dries within minutes of leaving the fire.