Father’s Day Fish BBQ!

Happy Father’s Day!

… And if your Dad is anything like mine was, the last thing he wants to do on his special day is sleep-in, be served breakfast in bed, receive gifts and be relieved of all household and child rearing responsibilities for the day. As opposed to my Mother, who expected all that, and deservedly so.

Papi’s idea of a great Father’s Day? He’d be left undisturbed as he puttered around all day in the basement, the garage, and the back, front and side yards of our home fixing-up, breaking down, searching for, finding, losing again, analyzing, building, painting, hammering and generally tinkering with all the myriad of projects he simultaneously had going on in all these locations (he was Gemini, June 10th).

Dad’s secret ingredient!

Then, Dad would culminate Father’s Day with a delicious BBQ cookout in the back yard for the family. Before we’d know it, the smell of grilled food would come wafting through the house and it would soon be time to feast!

His favorite thing to grill was fish, especially porgies and red snapper, marinated in beer followed by a hot n’ spicy seasoned rub! Here’s Dad’s recipe:

Ingredients:
2 lbs red snapper or porgies (bones & all!)
4 limes, juiced

Rub ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp salt

1/2 cup of your favorite beer (Dad used Schaefer and Miller beer back in the day!)

Preparation
1. Ensure fish is clean, in a bowl, rub fish with lime juice.

2. Mix rub with oil and beer and rub over fish. As they say on the islands, “You mus’ put he down overnight”, which means it’s best if you marinate your fish overnight in the refrigerator. Alternatively, marinate for at least one hour.

3. Wrap fish in foil and grill over hot coals for about 30 minutes, turning once.

Weather not permitting, (although my Dad would just put up a pup tent and continued BBQ-ing while we watched patiently from the kitchen bay window) as an alternative, preheat the oven to 190°C / 375°F / and roast the fish for approximately 45 minutes.

Enjoy with lotsa hot sauce, cool potato salad, fresh green salad, red beans and rice and corn on the cob!