CHESAGREAKE BAY SMOKED SNAPPA

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Had the pleasure of taking the family for The Oyester Roast again this year. If you don't know which one...don't worry about it...there was barely enough food for me there. I'd say where it was but we don't need every Latvian immigrant in Wilmington protesting the benefits of open air fires.
Which reminds me....CHECK OUT BISCUIT"S NEW CAMPFIRE STONES!

Anyway, sorry for the digression....back to the topic at hand...The Chesagreake Bay Snappa...I will not disrespect the Greeks by calling this Greek Snapper.

My good friend who threw the Oyester Roast...again who shall remain nameless...was so upset at running out of food...(really, who only makes 8lbs of Grouper salad? Jaques, Jackie, Lee, and myself only ate a pound each)...that he sent me home with this beautiful fish and some Scamp fillets.


Once I returned home... set out to cook the fish over the coals outdoors. There's nothing like that smoky taste that comes from cooking over hardwood coals. I knew my first go at it would not be perfect and there would be a few wrinkles to iron out. I got a nice pinewood, pinestraw, tomato vine, and hardwood leaf fire roaring good.


I seasoned up the fish just like I was told as best as I could remember (just like my fire) and commenced to prepping side dishes.




Just in case the whole fish didn't turn out...I had some Scamp fillets set aside with the Lemon/Lime juice/EVO/Seasoning emulsion. For those I set a jumbo bag of charcoal on my regular charcoal grill to fire and covered her up.
About that time I went back into the house and started slicing apples for my side dish and heard a knock at the door. A policeman....Hmmmm...

"Yessir, what can I do for ya?"
"We have a complaint about the smoke, do you know it's illegal to burn..."
I barely controlled the impulse to blurt out 'I wasn't smoking CHIT!'...grinned....and let the gentleman continue...
"...leaves between the hours of..."
I cut him off "WHO COMPLAINED?"
"Sir, that's not important. What you need to understand is...."
"WHO COMPLAINED? IT IS IMPORTANT." again I cut him off. "I wanna know who the hell says I can't cook a fish in my backyard"
"Sir, settle down, noone says it's illegal to cook a fish in your backyard..."
"Good." I shut the door and walked back into the kitchen, grabbed the fish and went out the backdoor.
By that time the whole damn pile of pinestraw, tomato vines, leaves, cardboard boxes, yep...I even threw a 7-eleven coffee cup half full of gas on the whole thing to get it started good....had burned down to what you see below.


As I clipped a couple branches of pineapple sage and Oregano from the flower bed the cop came rudely barging thru my gate intent on arresting me for burning leaves. When he saw the Oregano and Pineapple Sage in my hand....he drew his gun.
"I knew there was something wrong with you."
"Takes a real genius to figure that out" now I was pissed.
That's when he walked over to the fire pit and saw the fish.
"Catch that in the Hot Ditch? Wha cha cach eeeem on?" His demeanor changed and put his gun away.
I leaned down and picked up the Pineapple Sage and Oregano and he twitched, but restrained drawing his gun again. I walked over to the fish he was still gawking at and stuffed the fresh herbs into its belly.
"Minnows" I couldn't resist. Despite wanting to get rid of this guy, I elaborately explained exactly where he could catch Snapper in the HotDitch. He apologized for thinking I was a murderer and told me it was no problem to cook my fish outside anymore.

In explaining where the fish could be caught, I burned the fish a little bit...but figure next time it will come out a little better. If that damn cop wouldn't have distracted me...my pinestraw coals wouldn't have burned out and it would have been better than Greek fish.
Here is a pic of the Chesagreake Snappa...




The Scamp.


Potatoes.


The greens...Sauteed onions, olive oil, garlic, salt&pepper.
Add Spinach and remove from heat.


The apples, cranberries, and graham cracker crust.

While I doubt you'll believe the lie about why I burned the fish...hope you enjoyed it. It was cooked Tuesday we got back as a birthday meal for my father-in-law. I anticipated fish salad with the leftovers but the only thing left were the bones. Thanks so much from all of us Nick. It was a simple but delicious meal. The Snapper, despite it's rough look coming off the grill...was better than I could have ever imagined. The very best meat being the fatty pieces along the belly. GOOD grief I am hungry again.
I imagine my next snapper might be poached instead of grilled.....

Holwachagot

[Tenacious]

You really know how to make a man hungry!!! Great thread brotha!!!

[bigfish4me]

Thats some damgoodeatswatchagot

[fishingfool34]

man NOW IM REALLY hungry!!!

[Captain Michael Buffington]

love the whole snappa dinna!

Mike

[bigfish4me]

I wonder how a cat
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Fish would taste

[Captain Michael Buffington]

and show you the results

Mike

[clt_capt]

You pay extra in those fancy restaurants for "fire roasted"...

Looks like mighty fine eats

[Finesse]

Damn G !!!
Looking tasty for sure
Great photo essay bro

[merry marlin]

Fine looking and tasting stuff Geoff...
16 more days to catchem for the grill !!!
MM