Bahamas: Bahamian Grilled Fish

This post might just make my mother faint… I actually made fish. I am not a fish person… I’m not really a ‘anything from the sea’ person. I prefer to stick with food that lives on dry land. (I remember one time as a child, my mom made fish for dinner and said I couldn’t leave the table until I ate it, I think I sat there stubbornly for a few hours, refusing to eat the fish). Jamie however, really likes fish, but I never make it. I decided that maybe, seeing as a big part of Bahamian cuisine is fish, that I should give it a go. This is the true heart of why I am doing this; to venture out from my fears of strange foods to try new things. So, I decided to make fish.

(My last time, and the first time in years, eating fish was when I was in Colombia in 2012 on a mission trip. We went to an island on our day off. They prepared food for us, and lo and behold, the food was a whole fish. I was starving though, so I actually ate it. I did however douse it in lime to try to counteract the fishy taste. Here I am bravely eating my fish).

To learn about my new, exciting news regarding Colombia, check it out here.

Actually, I was going to be really adventurous. The plan was to make conch fritters (you know, like with meat from a conch shell). I was all gun hoe to do this, but I couldn’t find conch meat ANYWHERE. I grew up in a small village of about 1,000 people. When I lived there, it as almost a daily occurrence that our tiny, local grocery store did not always have what I was looking for. But now I live in a city of 133,000. I thought that my chances of finding this were substantially better. But to no avail. Jamie and I literally went to four different grocery stores/meat shops looking for this, but it was no where. I should have clued in to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to find it when the person who works solely in the fish department in Zehrs didn’t even know what conch meat was. That should have been a pretty good indicator, but I was determined. We searched high and low, and checked out many international food sections. There was plenty of other weird fish type things, but no conch meat… so I had to change my plan. That is when I decided to make Bahamian grilled fish.

The recipe that I used listed a few different kinds of fish that you could use for this recipe (striped bass, sea bass, bluefish, and mahi mahi). My lack of luck continued however when I was unable to find any of these types of fish. I did however find basa, which, with my lack of knowledge of fish, I thought might be similar to bass, so I got it. Jamie laughed at my reasoning behind that.

While I was checking out of the grocery store, the cashier asked me if I was going to have to force anyone to eat that fish, and I said “nope, just myself”. I explained that Jamie loves fish, but I don’t so I never cook it for him so I felt bad about that. It was going to be a struggle for me to eat that fish.

I would say for making fish for the VERY first time that it went quite well. I had no idea how to tell if it was done or not. I think I over cooked it a little because while I was trying to flip it, it would just fall apart. I didn’t want Jamie’s help though because I wanted to try this one all on my own.

I took this picture to show how reluctant I was to try the fish. That is Jamie’s portion compared to my own. (The salad on our plates is called Tabouleh, which I made for Bahrain. Check that post out here).

What was the verdict you may ask. I actually kind of liked it (if my mother hasn’t fainted yet, that just might have made her faint). For this recipe, the fish marinates for about an hour before being cooked. The marinade actually was really yummy and covered up any fishy taste. I ate my whole serving (even though I know that’s not a lot). Jamie liked it too, but that is not as amazing as me liking it 😛

Bahamian Grilled Fish

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
1 scotch bonnet pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
4 fish fillets, 6-8 ounces each
salt
black pepper

Combine oil, garlic, lime juice, ginger, and scotch bonnet in a non-reactive bowl. Add fish and turn to coat well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

Remove fish from marinade and scrape off most of the garlic and ginger pieces. Season with salt and pepper and grill about 3 minutes on each side, or until fish is nicely browned and just cooked through.

Recipe courtesy of; http://www.food.com/recipe/bahamian-grilled-fish-372932

Well, that is probably the most adventurous thing that I have tried so far. I am still disappointed that I wasn’t able to make conch fritters though. In case you ever want to, I discovered later that you can buy conch meat off of amazon. 45 ounces for $35. I’m not quite sure how I feel about buying meat off of Amazon. Seems a little sketchy. For the conch fritters recipe, click here.

Oh no, I know this has nothing to do with The Bahamas, but I just looked outside and it’s snowing. Ugh, Canada. Someone please tell the weather that Spring started five days ago!

Anyways, that’s my latest cooking around the world adventure. To check out my last post on Azerbaijan, check that out here. 12 countries down, 183 more to go.