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Cooking outdoors can be a fun experience if you know how to prepare the foods that you like and take care to ensure that you are following the proper safety procedures. Some especially good and healthy foods to prepare outdoors on a barbecue or grill include whole fish such as snapper or trout. If you are camping and plan on catching your dinner or, if you are planning an outdoor cooking event at home and want to grill fish, it is important to know the fish preparation method that is required prior to cooking your meal. You should also be aware of the process involved in grilling fish over an open flame or extremely high heat surface. Additionally, prior to grilling fish, be prepared to marinate it first for a period of 2-3 hours. Keep this in mind so that you do not start firing your grill too early in the day.
Once you have caught your fish, either directly from its source or from your neighborhood grocery store, clean the fish by slicing open its stomach with a sharp knife. Remove its internal organs. Next, de-scale the fish. Once the fish is de-scaled, rinse it in water and place the fish on a platter or in aluminum foil shaped as a platter to hold the fish. To avoid attracting any unwanted bugs to the fresh fish, cover the fish and platter with a clean cloth or paper towel. Now you need to create a marinade.
How you make your marinade varies depending on the type of taste that you want the fish to have. You will need at a minimum, however, one cup of any type of cooking oil. For flavor, add to the oil a combination of one of the following: fresh chopped garlic, salt, and pepper; fresh chopped garlic, basil, salt, and pepper; salt and pepper only. If desired, you can also use a store-bought marinade. Take the platter with the fish, remove the protective covering, and pour the marinade over the fish. Replace the covering and let the fish sit in the marinade for approximately 2-3 hours. During this time, rotate the fish once or twice to ensure that the marinade is soaking into the fish. Move the fish platter to a convenient location and proceed to your grill.
Fresh fish can be cooked over a gas grill or over a barbecue or campfire using either charcoal or wood as the heat source as long as the grill has been set to, or is generating, a high temperature. If you are cooking over an open fire, make sure that the flame is not present any longer, and the heat is hot, before placing the fish on the grill. If charcoals are being used, make sure they are a white color before proceeding. Once the fish has marinated for 2-3 hours, the most important part of the cooking process occurs: take the fish out of the marinade and gently wipe both sides of it with a cloth or paper towel to remove all of the marinade from the fish. This is important because removing the marinade prevents the fish skin from sticking to the grill and thus avoids the fish "flaking" on removal from the grill. Save the remaining marinade that the fish was soaking in and place the fish directly on the hot grill. For a .50 lbs. (200-250 gram) fish, cook for approximately 10-12 minutes. (Adjust your cooking time to the weigh of the fish.) Once the fish is cooked on one side, gently lift it using a metal spatula or, if you are in the wilderness, use fresh tree branches shaped like a fork, making sure that the fish does not tear as you lift it. The rotated fish should now take approximately 10 minutes to complete cooking.
When the fish has been rotated, you can baste it with the leftover marinade. Basting the fish adds a little more zest and flavor to the fish and prevents the skin from drying out. If you choose to baste your fish, make sure that you baste the inside cavity as well as the skin. You will know when your fish is properly grilled when it has a brownish, slightly roasted color to its skin. The tail will also appear crispy and the eyes will appear totally glazed over or white in appearance. At this point, remove your fish from the grill, place it on a fresh plate, and enjoy. You now have a healthy, nutritional meal that can be prepared outdoors with little fuss.
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