Sea bream, a hermaphrodite fish
The sea bream is mainly found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. There are several species. For example, you have the gilthead sea bream, the red sea bream, and so on. A striking feature of sea bream is that they are often not monoecious. Some species are hermaphroditic (both female and male sex organs), while others are male as a ‘child’ and become female as adults, and vice versa. Weird but true!
Preparation of grilled sea bream
Preparing this grilled sea bream recipe requires some preparation, but hey, nothing worth having comes easy! Let's go for it!
Put all the ingredients for the sea bream marinade in the blender and blend to a smooth paste. Place the sea bream in a large bowl. With a sharp knife, make 3 notches in each side of the fish and pour the marinade over them. Make sure they are well coated both inside and out with the marinade. Let the sea bream marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
While the sea bream is absorbing the marinade, you can get started on the side dish: the coconut rice! We prepare this indoors. How do we proceed?
Put the rice in a bowl with cold water and let it soak for 15 minutes. Drain the rice. In a pan, mix the drained rice, coconut milk, stock, coconut flakes, garlic, ginger, honey and salt. Stir well. Place the pan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil without stirring. As soon as the rice starts to simmer, mix everything together while stirring. Put a lid on the pan and let simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat (with the lid still on) and let the rice stand for 10 minutes. Loosen the rice with a fork and pour into a bowl. Top with the lemon and lime zest. Season with salt and pepper.
Now that this is done and the hour is over, the sea bream can be taken out of the fridge. Heat up your barbecue to a medium-high temperature. We use Barbecook's Spring gas barbecue, but it’s also perfectly possible to use another barbecue for preparing the sea bream, as long as it has a lid (or dome). In order to prevent the fish from sticking to the barbecue grid, we use a fish grill as well as a grill mat. This way we can be sure that no pieces of our sea bream will go up in smoke! Remove the sea bream from the marinade and stuff it with the lemongrass. Clamp the fish between a fish grill. Bake the sea bream on the BBQ (with the lid closed) for 25-30 minutes until cooked through. Serve the grilled sea bream with the coconut rice.
Enjoy your meal!
