Grilled Whole Bronzini

My husband is a complete grilling-freak and so we tend to use our outdoor charcoal grill through even the worst of winters.  Sometimes, he has had to dig the grill out from under five feet of snow on the back patio in order to satisfy the family’s craving for a good grilled burger.  The only kind of weather that he had not conquered up till now was the wet rainy weather of Washington DC and those of you that live in the metro area know that such days can come quite frequently here.  However, some months ago he had discovered an on-line outlet for a portable Japanese Yakitori charcoal grill and after fantasizing about it for a few weeks, he finally took the plunge last week and ordered it.  His new toy arrived this afternoon and he promptly offered to go to a local fish vendor. He came back with a whole Bronzini and that is what I experimented with this evening. The grill worked like a charm and surprising, despite its small size, it produced enough heat to cook the whole fish to a delectable tenderness. To my shock, the little wonder can be safely placed on a table on our covered porch and we can grill our dinners even on the worst of the DC-rainy-days! Trust the Japanese to come up with this magnificent gadget!

Ingredients:

1. One whole Bronzini, cleaned from the inside
2. ½ cup of chopped fresh cilantro
3. ½ cup fresh chopped flat leaf parsley
4. One small red onion or shallot
5. 2 fresh lemons
6. 3 cloves of garlic
7. One teaspoon of salt
8. ½ a fresh green chili
9. 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Wash the fish under a stream of cold water and pat dry (inside and out) with paper towels.
2. Make three small cuts on each side of the fish.
3. Prepare the marinade by coarsely grinding the cilantro, parsley raw onion/shallot, garlic, green chili, the juice of one lemon, salt and olive oil in a small food processor or mortar pestle.
4. Stuff the inside of the fish with a few tablespoons of the marinade and also place as much of the marinade inside the three slits on each side of the fish.
5. Pour the remaining marinade on top of the fish.
6. Heat up the charcoal in the grill and when it is ready, place the fish on top of a metal grate and cook evenly on each side.
7. When the fish is cooked, sprinkle the juice of the second lemon liberally over it.
8. Serve the fish with jasmine rice, a side dish of stir fry vegetable (I prepared sweet and sour eggplant by stir frying it in a bit of olive oil and then adding two cloves of garlic, some diced colorful bell peppers, some apple cider vinegar, some brown sugar and salt) and salad greens (I used baby arugula leaves).