Whole Grilled Fish with Charred Lemon

Ingredients

• 2 whole red-skinned fish such as red snapper, scaled, gutted and fins trimmed, 600 g each cleaned whole weight including heads and bones
• 30 g olive oil, divided
• 160 g lemon, cut into 1 cm rounds
• 12 g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 6 g fine salt
• 1 g ground black pepper

Let’s make it

1. Heat a clean grill to medium-high and prepare a cooler area for finishing. Pat the fish thoroughly dry inside and out. Make two shallow diagonal slashes in the skin on each side without cutting through the backbone.
2. Rub the fish inside and out with 20 g olive oil, the salt and pepper. Brush the lemon rounds and the inside of a fish grilling basket with the remaining 10 g oil.
3. Secure the fish in the basket and grill over direct heat for 7–9 minutes per side, turning carefully. Move to the cooler area and close the lid if the skin colors before the flesh cooks through.
4. Check the thickest flesh just behind the head without touching bone; it must reach 145°F / 63°C. Total cooking is usually 18–25 minutes for this size, but rely on the thermometer. Grill the lemon rounds for 2–3 minutes per side during the final minutes.
5. Transfer the whole fish to a platter, top with the charred lemon and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve one fish per person, lifting the flesh away from the backbone and checking carefully for small bones.