Recipes do matter too

Well since we are enjoying some time without getting wet, it's always quite delightful to know about some mouth watering recipes & cooking methods of what we hunt. If you are not into fish or seafood in general; you can only know about these interesting ways but you will never know what are you really missing. In fact the logic would be to forget originally about spearfishing if you don't eat fish. No it's not that bad, you can still give the fish you speared to someone who eats it or to friends & family. You can't miss both, the taste of the flesh & the fun of hunting. That will be the true loss I assure.

So this post will be dedicated to adding interesting recipes for wonderful seafood & fish dishes. It will not be necessarily as in expert Chef  style or high end lavishing gourmet teasers however, it will be more to the simple side. Easy to pre & prepare the ingredients as well as easy cooking. By the way, everyone is welcomed to send me or add any recipe he/she wishes to this post. I'll try to keep them coming as much as I can. Just to make your spearfishing more juicy & rewarding. Moreover; many of our friends or fellow hunters usually exchange recipes while returning back from trips. It is one of the common mediums that you should enjoy as part of this wonderful package.

So this coming one would be my favorite for Groupers, you can check out the nutritional facts of groupers right here Grouper Nutritional facts isn't it a beauty ?? Grouper flesh is majestic, bright white chunks that amazingly has an outstanding taste. Only watch your cholesterol if you get addicted to Grouper meat.

The Spicy Fish/Al Samaka al Harra (Middle Eastern dish)

A very simple yet rich & aromatic dish. It's ideal when cooked with the honorable grouper flesh. So after the RIP rituals you need to prepare the base first. Lets see how this should start.

Step 1- The ideal form

First you need to prepare your grouper. The Ideal form that you need to have is 2 skinned & boneless juicy fillets. The ideal grouper should weigh 4 to 6 kg to get a decent fillet portion after cleaning it. It is best to explain to the person who will clean your grouper to skin it & remove its entire skeletal form to end up with such fillets.

Step 2-  Seasoning the fillets

Remove all those unwanted tissues that might appear to you specially near the abdominal part. You should do that while fresh water flows on both fillets. Do not remove excessively not to waste allot of flesh. Once you're done make sure to place the fillets in a strainer to dispatch any water into the sink. While that is in the process, start preparing 4 or 5 small lemons for squeezing, 2 medium sized cloves of garlic for mincing, 1 flat full table spoon of salt & 1 full tea spoon of cumin. Once you're ready with all that, you need to place your fillets in a large & deep pan. Preferably a rectangular shaped one. Start by soaking both fillets in the lemon juice & making sure that the juice reached all parts. Next you need to ad the salt & repeat the same process to distribute the salt evenly. then rub both fillets with the minced garlic & finally add the cumin. Leave the entire baby covered & intact inside the fridge for 1 hour to absorb the seasoning.

Step 3- The filling

 The filling is the essence of this majestic yet simple dish. You need to prepare 2 fresh green sweet peppers, 1 yellow & 1 red. Cut those into small squares. Then find 3 decent sized fresh tomatoes & cut those into small squares too. Mix the the peppers & tomato squares together in a plate then sprinkle a handful fist of shredded dill. Let all of those blend together in the plate & add a dash of salt, a dash of pepper & some hot sauce as per your taste for spicy stuff (optional). Now you are ready to warm up things a bit. Start by heating a frying pan & add some olive oil; about 2 or 3 dashes from the bottle. Leave that to heat very well then throw in the filling mix that you just mastered. Stir that for about 2 minutes until you start noticing the color of the tomatoes & peppers started to darken. Once you reach that point you will need to add 1 full table spoon of tomato paste then stir gently. As you stir the filling mixture will start to thicken & blend slowly. You might need to add 1/4 cup of fresh water to lighten up the thickness a bit. Keep on stirring the mixture in the pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes then leave it to cool down a bit.

Step 4- The preheat/stick in process

Great; so now you should start resurrecting your seasoned grouper fillets out of the fridge. Sounds like a ritual but it just fits in. Okay so now your fillets are out, your filling has cooled down a bit & is ready to rumble. You need to either use the same rectangular deep pan or just have a fresh one ready. Get your oven ready by preheating it to 200c. NO GRILL. Grab an aluminum foil roll & unwrap about  double the size of the pan you intend to use. Now you need to pamper the pan with the foil evenly then place 1 fillet. Get the filling & start distributing it evenly on top of the fillet until it's all there & have completely covered it. Get the second fillet & place it on top of this volcanic form to cover it entirely; as if it's a juicy sandwich. I'm drooling already. Finally just neatly place 3 or 4 slices of tomatoes on top of the fillet equally & wrap the whole combination perfectly with the aluminum foil. Make sure to perfectly seal it. When done try to puncture some holes into the wrapped aluminum foil to prevent any excess sauce from damping up the fillets & allow some steaming to happen. Once you're ready, stick it in the oven  & leave it to cook for about  30 to 40 minutes.

Nice & easy, you can serve that with rice or pasta to supply you with the carbohydrates if needed. Usually serving it should include Tahina Sauce  as well.