Recipes / Fish
Whole braaied yellowtail with lemon and herbs
A whole yellowtail stuffed with lemon, garlic and herbs, cooked in a hinged grid over medium coals and basted with lemon butter.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 30 min
- Serves
- 4 to 6
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Lemon butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Close the lid between turns. It cooks a little faster than an open braai, so start checking about 5 minutes early.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Rinse the fish inside and out and pat it dry. Cut 3 or 4 slashes about 1 cm (1/2 inch) deep into each side, down to the bone.
- Rub the fish all over with the oil, then season the skin and the cavity with the salt and pepper.
- Fill the cavity with half the lemon slices, the sliced garlic, parsley and thyme. Lay the rest of the lemon slices over the skin.
- Melt the butter with the crushed garlic in a small pot at the edge of the fire. Stir in the lemon juice and parsley.
- Oil a hinged grid well, put the fish inside and close it firmly. Cook over medium coals for 12 to 15 minutes, with the grid high enough that you can hold your hand over it for 5 to 6 seconds.
- Turn the grid and cook the second side for 12 to 15 minutes. Brush the slashes with lemon butter every 5 minutes.
- Move the grid to a cooler part of the fire if the skin chars before the flesh near the bone is cooked. Lift the fish onto a board, pour over the rest of the butter and serve.
Done when: the flesh in the thickest slash is white and lifts easily off the bone, and a thermometer pushed in next to the backbone reads 63°C (145°F).
Tips
- Ask the fishmonger to scale and gut the fish. Keep the head on, as it holds the fish together on the grid.
- A fish this size is hard to turn without a hinged grid. If you only have a flat grid, cook 2 smaller fish instead and turn them with two spatulas.
- Yellowtail is lean and dries out fast. Start checking the temperature after 10 minutes on the second side.
Yellowtail is one of the best-known line fish on the Cape coast, caught from boats and ski-boats off the West Coast and False Bay when the shoals come in. Fishermen often braai it whole on the beach the same day, with little more than salt, lemon and butter. Cooking it on the bone keeps the firm flesh moist. For a sweeter Cape-style baste, try the apricot-glazed braai fish.