Whole Yellowtail Snapper

[mmcauliffe]

Never cooked a YT whole. The ones I have look like the perfect size.

Anyway, I scaled, gutted and took the gills out and vacuum froze them after my Yankee Capt's trip a couple weekend ago, now I would like to cook one next week for dinner. I'm thinking either bake or broil.

Any good recipes for stuffing and what to put on the outside of the fish?

Not necessarily looking for an eatable stuffing (although not opposed to it ) I was thinking some aromatics would be much simpler and quicker.

Looking for reasonably quick & simple I can do after I get home from a long day at work.

[PhishingPhanatic]

I prefer whole fried yellowtail, but baked is good too. If you are going to fry, cut 3 or 4 slits in the fish on each side. I like to make a simple marinade of lime juice, fresh minced garlic, salt and pepper, marinate the fish for about 30 minutes, flipping a few times. Get your oil really hot, and dust the fish inside and out with flour, then fry about 4 min per side, depending how big the fish is. Drain on paper towels for a few minutes and dig in...the crispy skin is awesome.

If you are baking, you can do a lot of things. Stuff the cavity with some sliced onions, lemon wedges, various herbs, etc. Ricky does this a lot more then I do.

I have also made whole hogfish stuffed with crabmeat, I sauteed the crabmeat with butter and onions, then mixed in breadcrumbs, heavy cream and parsley, then stuffed the cavity of the fish and baked. Came out awesome.

[mmcauliffe]

I prefer whole fried yellowtail...

All those methods sound pretty good.

I love fried fish. Hands down my favorite way!! Either dipped in beer batter or Panko or like you said, just a dusting with flour, salt/pepper and maybe a touch of Old Bay thrown in with the flour. All depends on the species and cut as to which method.

Trying to add a healthier alternative to mix it up a little.

[mmcauliffe]

Thanks Rory & Ricky for the ideas

[GO4EM]

Deepfry. Mmmmmm

[mmcauliffe]

My first attempt a couple weeks ago, I tried to grill it indoors with one of those cat iron reversable things (smooth on one side for pancake type cooking, raised ribs on the other for grillin') Well, I'm suprised I didn't set the smoke alarm off. Halfway through I had to open the front door and the glass sliding door Even though I oiled the fish well and oiled the grill, it stuck and had quite a job getting it off the grill somewhat intact. The Y'tail tasted "ok" but it looked like crap all tore up.

So this time I was tore between baking and frying. I decided to bake this one, the next time I'll fry for sure.

Anyway, visualy this one is nothing special. I could have done a better job garnishing with the rice pilaf and another side and maybe some "green" for visual effect but it tasted pretty darn good!!

[PhishingPhanatic]

Looks great!

[permitchaser]

they r good bake ,but fried r better for my taste icaught a few this weekend im going to butterfly them bread them and fry them to make fish sadwich

[permitchaser]

miss one letter sorry sandwich.