A fish in seaweed

A fish in seaweed

Summer

Cooking fish over the direct heat of an open fire is such a pleasure. The flavours and textures are out of this world, but there are other ways to cook fish when you’re outside that are equally delicious and just as exciting. Wrapping fish in clay is one option. Another is to use seaweed. It’s a very natural, ancient method that works well with delicate fish like sea trout or large pollack or whiting. The fish steams beautifully inside its briny cocoon, resulting in extremely moist flesh and a set of flavours you might not have tasted before. You don’t actually eat the seaweed, because it’ll be a bit tough – although, you could certainly try, if you were still hungry.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1 large sea trout, rainbow trout, pollack or any other large round fish (about 1.5–2kg/3lb 5oz–4lb 8oz), gutted and scaled
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • a basketful of large, broad seaweeds, such as sugar kelp and oarweed
  • a handful of fennel tops (optional)
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Trickle the fish with extra-virgin olive oil and season it lightly with salt and pepper.

Rinse the seaweed thoroughly in plenty of changes of fresh water. You want to do your best to get rid of any sand.

Tear the fennel tops, if using, over the fish.

Lay the lengths of seaweed side by side to form a sort of rough rectangle. Lay the fish on top, and if you can, roll the fish up in the seaweed. (I’m not saying this part is easy, but persevere and one way or another you’ll get there.) Lay the seaweed-wrapped fish on the grill set over a hot fire and cook it for 20 minutes on the first side, then about 20 minutes on the second.

In this case, the best way to check if the fish is cooked is to pop a temperature probe into the thickest part of the fillet and check how hot it is. It’ll be done when it reaches about 50°C (122°F). If you don’t have a probe, you can slide away a piece of seaweed and insert the tip of a knife into the fillet. The flakes of meat should come away from the bone with ease.

Lift the whole fish off the fire and onto a board. Let it rest in the seaweed for 5–10 minutes before gently splitting the wrapping to expose the fish inside. Lift the fish from the bone and serve.

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