Dorade is a very easy fish to grill. The meat is firm and has a bright fishy taste. We asked the fishmonger to clean the fish. Of course, you can try that yourself, but if you see how fast they do this, we don’t bother.
This is a cultivated sea bream from the Mediterranean. They are a lot fatter and therefore more suitable for the barbecue. There are many ways to give a Dorade more flavor, but this time we do it with just some salt and pepper.
We are going to grill the fish quickly on high heat. Because this fish nice and thick, we cut the fish. This way, we can be sure that the whole fish will be cooked through and through.
We grease the fish with a little olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on top. That’s all. The olive oil must ensure that the skin does not stick to the grid. We never wholly prevent that, but every bit helps, of course.
To turn a whole fish and keep as much skin on the fish as possible, we use a long spatula. This is a large hamburger spatula, but you also have special fish spatulas that are even longer.
With the sea bream, we make fresh salsa. For this, we grill a lemon and chop some red onion, cilantro, and jalapeño pepper. We squeeze the lemon over it. The roasted lemon is a lot sweeter than a regular lemon. Just try it.
You can see that we have not been able to keep the skin whole. The taste is fine though.
Ingredients
- 2 whole sea bream
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- Pepper and salt
For the Salsa
- 1 whole lemon
- 1 jalapeño pepper
- 1 small bunch of fresh cilantro
- 1 small red onion
Instructions
- Prepare a barbecue for grilling with a kettle temperature between 250 and 300°C (480 to 570F)
- Cut the sea bream down to the bone by a half-inch apart. Coat the skin with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Cut the lemon in half and grill it on the barbecue until grill stripes appear.
- Grill the sea bream 4 to 5 minutes on each side until the meat is not transparent anymore.
- Let the fish rest for a while. Then we can cut fine the jalapeño pepper, onion, and cilantro. Put everything in a bowl and squeeze the lemon over it. Season with some salt and pepper.
