FISH FOR FREELOADERS

Q I want to cook 22 fish fillets on my six burner, hooded barbecue for the

freeloaders coming over on Good Friday. Will I use foil trays or totally wrap

them? How long should I cook them for? And what should I add to them?

Adrian

Mt Warren Park

Queensland

A Adrian, I first came across the idea of cooking fish in individual sealed foil

packages in Steven Raichlen’s excellent book ‘How to Grill’. Not only does the

fish cook quickly, but the packets will puff up signaling that they're done (usually

about 10 minutes at high temp).

It's the most foolproof way to cook fish on a barby and it retains all the moisture

so there's a fair margin for error. The other advantage is that the packages can

be cooked either by the direct or indirect method. I always tend to use direct with

fish as a lower temp and a longer cooking time usually leads to dry fish. Also,

considering the number you are cooking for, it would be best to spread the

packages out over the entire cooking surface.

Spread a sheet of foil (shiny side down) and smear some butter or margarine
in the centre of the bottom half of the square. Add a handful of thinly
sliced carrots, snow peas and white mushrooms. Add a little sake, rice wine
or sherry to the vegies. Place a fillet on top of the mounds and sprinkle
with a little garlic and ginger mixed with soy sauce and shallots and
sprinkle a few sesame seeds over the top.

Fold over the square of foil and carefully crimp the edges so that you have
a sealed rectangular package (don't wrap the fish tightly in foil, you want
some space around it so the steam can circulate and cook the contents). You
could probably put two fillets in each package but I think this always works
best as an individual dish (just remember to tell people to slit the package
first as sometimes the escaping steam can burn fingers).

If there is an air leak and the packages don't puff up - just slit one open
after about 10 minutes and test to see if the fish flakes easily.

Because it's such a quick-cooking recipe, I suggest you have a trial run before

the freeloaders arrive.


BBQ Blue

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