Aishling Moore: How to make barbecued red mullet with grilled courgette salad

Aishling Moore's grilled red mullet courgette salad: Picture: Chani Anderson

Red mullet is in season now and is one of the most beautiful fish in the sea with its apricot

coloured skin. It has a distinctive shrimp-like flavour and is the perfect fish for this application. It’s an oily species and firm in texture, so is well able to stand up to the char and smoke of a live fire.

I have butterflied the fish here, but grilling the fish whole produces sublime results. The fish cooked whole on the bone benefits the end result massively, keeping the flesh moist and offering more flavour when cooked with the bones intact.

Barbecuing butterflied fish is very satisfying, to cook and to eat. It gives you the opportunity to pin bone the fish and also speeds up the cooking exponentially.

Butterflying takes a fair bit of skill, but it’s something your fishmonger can do for you in a flash, so don’t be afraid to ask. Still, be sure to check for bones before cooking.

This method of cookery is also excellent with other oily fish like mackerel and sardines.

A super straight-forward salad of grilled courgettes is the perfect accompaniment to allow the fish to shine.

Basic recipes like these rely on the quality of the ingredients, so use a good quality golden rapeseed or extra virgin olive oil for the dressing.

Courgettes are vegetables that require little to no cooking, which is most often where most cooks go wrong. Cook them quickly over a high heat or not at all. They are fabulous raw, shaved thinly and dressed in salads or briskly kissed on the bars of a ripping hot grill or roasted high in a preheated oven

Barbecued red mullet with grilled courgette salad

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This recipe is all about simple seasonal cooking with barbecued red mullet served with a grilled courgette salad.

Servings

4

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 4 whole red mullet (gutted and scaled)

• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil

• Sea salt

• 1 lemon

• For the courgette salad

• 2 courgettes

• 1.5 tb golden rapeseed oil

• 1 clove of garlic minced

• 1 lemon juice and zest

• 2 sprigs of flat leaf parsley

• 2 sprigs mint

• Sea salt

Method

1. Light your barbecue at least 30 minutes before you intend on cooking. Prepare the barbeque for direct cooking

2. Slice the courgettes into ½ inch rounds while you’re waiting. Place the sliced courgette rounds directly onto the bars of the barbeque and cook on both sides for 2- 3 minutes until charred but still holding their shape.

3. Remove from the heat and place in a large mixing bowl. Dress the still warm courgettes with the golden rapeseed oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, zest and sea salt.

4. Set aside and allow to marinate whilst cooking the red mullet.

5. Just before serving , when the red mullet is cooked add the finely chopped mint and flat leaf parsley to the courgettes and mix well.

6. For the red mullet

7. It’s vital when barbequing fish to cook at the highest heat possible to avoid the fish sticking to the bars of the barbeque.

8. Lightly grease the whole red mullets with rapeseed oil and season with sea salt flakes.

9. Place the whole fish on the hottest part of the barbecue, be careful when doing so as the oil droplets may catch.

10. Cook the red mullet on one side for 8-10 minutes until charred, depending on the size of the fish.

11. When barbecuing fish, it is important to only turn the fish once, minimising the damage you can cause to the exterior and to prevent the fish from sticking.

12. Turn the fish over on its other side, use a fish slice to free the fish from the bars of the barbeque and turn using a pair of heatproof kitchen tongs.

13. Cook for a further 6-8 minutes until the whole fish is nicely charred and cooked through.

14. Serve with grilled courgette salad and wedges of lemon.

Fish tales

I love barbecuing butterflied whole fish; but it can be a little trickier with sticking. The frame of the fish certainly helps with turning and moving.

Removing the cooked opaque flesh from the bone is a breeze if you approach with a delicate hand and use the frame and bone structure of the fish as a guide.

If you’d prefer to steer clear of the barbecue, you could bake the fish in a preheated oven at 175°C.

The best way to check that the fish is cooked through is by using a thermometer. Always insert into the thickest part of the fish.