Redfish on the half-shell

My little brother kills animals. He’s like a lot of people who enjoy hunting and fishing. Often he takes his two boys along, teaching them the rights and wrongs of being a sportsman. Probably a good time and good lessons to teach young folks.

But that’s not what I want to focus on. I want to tell you about the way he told me to cook Redfish. He gave my Mom a bunch of fish from their last trip and my Mom gave me some. He calls it Redfish on the half-shell. Click here to go to a sight that has some info. As far as cooking it, here is what little bro told me to do.

The fish was filleted with the skin and scales left in tact. You make a very hot fire in the grill. When the coals are ready set the grill as close to the coals as you can and put the fish on skin down. Salt and pepper the flesh side and paint it with olive oil and butter. Close the lid and four minutes later open and paint the flesh again with oil and butter. Do this every four minutes, about seven times, appx 3o minutes. Try to slide a spatula under the fish, if the fish will lift easily off the grill it’s ready, if not give it a few more minutes. Large fish might cook as many as 40 minutes. Redfish is a tough fish and can handle this kind of abuse. I bet that’s why Blackened Redfish worked out so well.

So I did this last night and it was great. I was afraid of cooking it to long, but 30 minutes was perfect. I also noticed the smaller of the two pieces was better then the larger one. Makes sense, tuff big ol fish, tender young fish.

I told Stacey that I am gonna tell all my chef friends about this and see if I can’t start a Redfish on the half-shell craze. I think it will take off, be as big as the Blackened craze. Then I went online and found all kinds of people writing about this method. I haven’t seen it on any menus yet so maybe I can get something going.