Grilled Striped Bass with Lemon Butter Sauce
One of the more pleasant side benefits of living near the beach is that every once in a while you can pull your dinner from the sea. The other morning my friend Bill and I trudged down the beach at dawn with surf rods, chunks of frozen mackerel and lightweight lawn chairs. Three hours later we trudged back with the additional burden of a nice 3 -1/2 lb striped bass in our bucket.
Striped bass, caught from the beach or a boat, is one of a dwindling list of wild foods we can bring fresh to our table, and therefore justifies a 3-hour expedition for its capture. Virtually all our meat and poultry is produced as an industrial product, only dimly related to its free-range ancestry, and thousands of years removed from the wild version. Seafood too is increasingly farm-raised (fed on pellets with color additives so that the product will somewhat resemble the wild version) and a large part of the wild catch is transported thousands of miles to market, so the combination of fresh and wild is becoming quite precious.
1 3-1/2 lb striped bass, preferably caught within the last few hours
1-1/2 cups aromatics: tarragon, oregano, garlic, onion, shallots, celery leaves, etc., minced
6 slices lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 stick butter
1/4 C parsley, minced
1/2 C dry white wine
3 T minced shallots
3 T minced scallions
salt and pepper
vegetable oil spray
salt, pepper, hot sauce
Wash, clean and scale the fish. Rub the cavity with salt and pepper and stuff with the lemon slices and aromatics. Tie the fish with butchers' twine.
See Grill Basics for equipment and procedures.
Pat the fish dry and spray with cooking oil. Spray a fish frame with cooking oil. Grill about 8 - 10 minutes on a side 6 - 8 inches above a medium hot charcoal and hardwood fire.
Allow the fish to rest for a few minutes before attempting to remove it from the frame.
To make sauce, mix the wine, shallots, scallions and lemon juice and reduce by half over medium heat, stirring occasionally. On low heat, whisk in the butter one tablespoonful at a time. Strain and add the parsley. Season with a dash of hot sauce if desired.
Remove the fish from the frame. Remove the twine and aromatics and place fish on a platter. Carefully remove the skin from the exposed surface of the fish and pour the sauce over it.
Serve with Grilled Corn and Red Pepper Salad and a crusty baguette.
Serves 4 - 6, depending on sides.
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It tastes even better when you catch it yourself right? :)
Posted by: clare eats | July 19, 2005 at 10:42 AM
Hi Stephen, That looks amazing! Our equivalent here in the land of 10,000 lakes is "shore lunch" - fresh walleye pulled still flopping on a stringer from the water and cooked over an open fire with potatoes and onions. Not quite as elegant as yours, however.
Posted by: Chefdoc | July 19, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Hi Stephen -- 3 hours? i can run down to the fulton street fish market and get one of those in 30 minutes!!! the joys of city living. LOOKS GREAT as usual!
D
Posted by: Diane | July 20, 2005 at 11:40 AM
Stephen,
Jeez! I'm incredibly envious. Not just at the freshness of the fish, but at catching it yourself.
Posted by: Kevin | July 20, 2005 at 01:20 PM
Nice scaling tool!
Posted by: Emily | July 26, 2005 at 08:56 PM
isn't a 3 1/2 pound striper vastly undersized??
Posted by: ezra Agnew | June 07, 2007 at 05:01 PM
isn't a 3 1/2 pound striper vastly undersized??
Posted by: ezra Agnew | June 07, 2007 at 05:01 PM
Indeed it is VASTLY undersized. I wake up at 4am and catch 8-10lb stripers on a regular basis.
I hooked up with an 8 pound 8 ounce striper yesterday morning....he tasted great once he was grilled! I live in Alabama. I was fishing at a spillway on the river....good times....20 minutes away...
I believe harvesting weight for these puppies is 11-25 pounds but they are routinely 40+
Posted by: Bass Busta' | June 11, 2007 at 05:15 PM
Also, the bass you have in the pic looks to be a hybrid as it's stripes are broken. Still good eatin' though!
Posted by: Bass Busta' 88 | June 12, 2007 at 11:41 AM