Rockfish Zarandeado

This is a Baja classic recipe which I have adapted and LOVE.  . BTW,it is pretty easy and you can make enough marinade for a couple of meals. The "Hella Asian" preparation allows you to eat the whole fish with no waste.

Serves 4

Marinade
1 ancho chile 
4 guajillo chiles
¼ cup chile soaking water
¼ cup tablespoons dark soy sauce
¼ cup Balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce
2 tbl olive oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
1 ½ tsp salt

1 large rockfish (over 20”) or 2 medium rockfish (16-20”)

12 warm corn tortillas
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced, for serving
2 limes, cut into wedges, for serving
Salsa or chile oil

In Mexico, the fish for this dish is typically split in half from head to tail, leaving in most of the bones and direct grilled. The two marinated sides (imagine them as fillets with head, tail and rib bones still in place) get grilled along with the marinated backbone and head. I cook the fish on foil instead of direct grilling and prepare the fish differently but either way works well. I scale the fish and then gut and gill. Then I fillet the fish leaving the skin, ribs and belly intact. The head is removed and split. If you are using a rockfish with long dorsal spines you can trim them with scissors.

In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chile pieces a few at a time, pressing them firmly against the hot surface with a metal spatula until they are aromatic, about 10-30 seconds per side. In a bowl, rehydrate the chiles for 20 minutes in hot tap water to cover; place a plate on top to keep them submerged. Stem and seed the rehydrated chiles and transfer to a food processor or blender. Add 1⁄4 cup of the soaking liquid, along with the soy sauce, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, pepper flakes and salt. Blend to a smooth puree. Press through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl. Taste and season with salt and hot sauce (e.g., Cholula). The fish is served with salsa so I prefer a milder marinade and let my guests adjust the “heat”. Balsamic vinegar gives the fish a slightly charred flavor if you direct grill. If you don’t like this, substitute Worcestershire sauce.

On a cookie sheet, lay out a piece of aluminum foil large enough to hold the entire fish then fold up the edges. Lay the fish fillets skin side down, skeleton and head on the foil (see photo). Brush the marinade over both sides of the fish fillet, skeleton and head. You’ll probably have marinade leftover for another round of fish. (It’ll keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.) Marinade the fish for 30 minutes while your grill is heating.

Turn on a gas grill to high or light a charcoal fire and let it burn to until the coals are covered with white ash. Carefully slide the fish on the foil onto the grill. Cook covered, a large rockfish typically takes 10-15 minutes. You can also cook using a broiler instead of a grill. When done, carefully slide the fish on the foil back onto the cookie sheet and serve family style with warm tortillas (place on grill for 5-10 second per side), red onion, lime and salsa for very tasty soft tacos.

Awesome looking recipe! I will be making this. Thanks GB2.

Loving the fish, bones and all, on the foil. We do the same thing and the wife gets out a pair of chopsticks and takes all the meat out of the bones. It's amazing how much meat we actually chuck if we don't do this. Lot's of good meat in there.

Z

Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration to eat more of the consumable meat on the fish, I wanna try this one for sure! - John

Thank you sir.......