Beer Broiled/Grilled/Fried California Fish recipes wanted

[Kelsea]

.... random late night thought: has anyone here tried beer broiling any California fish? I havn't come accross any recipies for California fish specifically... I imagine that some of our bass species and rockfish may work really well for what I have in mind - but I am open to ideas.

Was thinking maybe get a foil pan or sleeve - put some chopped onions, garlic, salt, bit of ginger, lemon juice, season to taste. Then insert fish and pour on a good stout for all of it to swim in. Cover with foil over grill or place in oven to broil. Thought maybe I'd experiment with this and get some fresh ideas from other spearos.

If I have time to get all of the ingredients together, I may try this at Bill's place - with Bill's permission to use his grill of course. If I have any good results, I'll post it.

Thanks for any ideas - cheers!

[M4LFUNCT10N]

That's talking dirty right there. I thing my favorite fish recipe is a calico's with a light batter and fried. Breadcrumbs, flour, and powdered Ranch Dressing makes for a great crust. Shoot, now I'm hungry and thinking of ways to tweak it.

A stout would be good, but might be a bit overpowering with your other flavors. Maybe a belgian double or trippel?

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by M4LFUNCT10N

A stout would be good, but might be a bit overpowering with your other flavors. Maybe a belgian double or trippel?

This is a good point about overpowering. I had thought so too - I just get frustrated with all of the recipes I've found online that say just basically state "insert generic beer here" and dont recommend a specific one for flavors. I really like dark, complex flavored beers - but I like your suggestion. Any brand you'd recommend? I am near Hollingshead and would love to see if they have something in particular.


This site I found has a great list - but I am not sure which one to pick first, lol!

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art27239.asp

"Dubbels and tripels generally have rich malt aromas with raisiny or fruit esters. Tripels may even have a citrus-like essence, with mild to moderate clove spiciness. There should be no detectable signs of butterscotch or diacetyl. They may have a balance of moderate hoppiness, or may only have a faint touch of pleasant bitterness. There should be no roasted malt aromas.

Dubbels are generally a dark amber to rich brown in color. Tripels mimic tones from golden sunlight to the rich amber of a topaz gem. The head retention varies, and may be adversely affected by the high alcohol content. Tripels, however, are usually highly effervescent, without disturbing the smooth body feel.

Flavor is where these dubbels and tripels take you on a fantasy trip! They are unlike any other brew on the earth. The complexity of malt and fruit spiciness, with restrained hop bitterness, can take you on an imaginary journey to the cobblestoned streets of Brugge, with its open canals, where the Belgian landscape opens up to the ends of the earth. "

[Kelsea]

Here is a recipe I was hoping to adapt somehow (taken verbatim from a website with minor editing, listed below). I am hoping to get a beer that will complement these flavors nicely. Again, they just say "beer" which is not very helpful... I can't get this fancy for a simply grill feast, but when I have more time to experiment, this sounds awesome:

"Beer Poached Fish With Parmesan Cream Sauce

Poaching is a great way to keep cooked fish moist and flavorful. Food is gently cooked in liquid just below the boiling point. You can poach fish in a covered pan on the stovetop or in the oven as in this recipe. I've used this recipe with whole dressed fish and fillets of halibut and sea bass.

Type: Fish
Courses: Main Course
Serves: 4 people

Recipe Ingredients (metric and standard units included)

1 Beer - (12 oz) - flat
1 Carrot - chopped
1 Onion - chopped
2 Celery stalks - chopped
3 Garlic cloves - chopped
2 Bay leaves
4 Fish fillets, abt 1" thick - - (6 to 8 oz ea)
2 tablespoons (30ml) Butter
2 tablespoons (30ml) All-purpose flour
1/4 cup (59ml) Whipping cream
1/2 cup (73g) / 2.6oz Grated Parmesan cheese
Salt - to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper - to taste
2 tablespoons (30ml) Chopped fresh parsley

Recipe Instructions
Heat beer and next 5 ingredients in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add fish fillets in a single layer and simmer for 10 minutes (or a minute or two less for fillets less than 1-inch thick). Transfer fish to a well-greased baking dish.

Increase heat under skillet to medium-high and cook until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup. Strain contents of pan, reserving liquid. Cool liquid in the freezer, stirring often.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat and stir in flour, a little at a time, until blended with the butter. Continue stirring until it is smooth. Add cooled broth, a little at a time, to the flour and butter mixture, while stirring. Slowly add cream while stirring. Add cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue stirring until sauce is hot and smooth.

Pour sauce over fish in baking dish. Place baking dish under a pre-heated broiler and broil until sauce is lightly browned and bubbly.

This recipe yields 4 servings.



From this site: http://www.cookingindex.com/recipes/...ream-sauce.htm

[Kelsea]

Here is much simpler one for Shrimp, but may work well for some of our fish:

Again - this one just says generally use a "Western Beer"

Herbed Shrimp in Beer
2 lb Peeled raw shrimp
1 1/2 c Great western beer
2 Cl Garlic, minced
2 tb Chives, snipped
2 tb Parsley, snipped
1 1/2 ts Salt
1/2 ts Pepper
Shredded lettuce
2 Green onions, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients except lettuce and green onions in a bowl. Cover, Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight; stir occasionally.
Drain, reserve marinade. 2. Broil shrimp 4 inches from heat until cooked and tender.
(about 2 minutes on each side, less for small shrimp) Do not overcook or shrimp will become tough.
Brush occasionally with marinade. 3. Serve shrimp on shredded lettuce; sprinkle with chopped green onion.
(marinade may be heated and served for dipping, if desired) Makes 6 servings

[ralphthehalibut]

Not quite broiling, but this works really well in the slow cooker with beef - I've been planning on trying it with sheepshead since they hold together well in soups.

Only difference is you let the beef simmer in the slow cooker all day to get tender, but with the fish you'd just add it about 10 minutes before serving.


- about 2 pounds white fish (calico, sheepshead, WSB, etc) cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes
- couple garlic cloves
- 24 ounces of tecate, pacifico, modelo especial, or other lighter Mexican beer
- 1 package dried onion soup/dip mix
- 1 small can tomato sauce
- 1 can stewed tomatos (I like the "italian spices variety")


pour all the ingredients except the fish into a slow cooker and let it simmer all day, add
the cubed fish about 10 minutes before serving.

if you really want to get fancy, you could superheat a cast iron pan and flash sear/brown the outsides of the fiah chunks before dropping them into the soup to cook the rest of the way through.




edit: also works with red wine instead of beer

[M4LFUNCT10N]

Kelsea you probably won't see this before I see you... but I've got a couple of the tripels on that list... Most notably the first tripel, St. Bernardus. I'm a complete beer snob, love tripels, quad's, stouts, porters, oh man... I'll bring a bit of a selection tonight. Screw my bosses that I said I was going to give them to. They can wait.

[J_P]

please update after you've tried a couple different beer styles kelsea

i'm interested to hear how this turns out. my initial feeling is that the best use for a quality beer is to be sitting next to your fish in a glass, but the flavors might do OK getting cooked down as you describe.

good luck

[So Cal Shaggy]

Hey Kelsey, I use beer to cook bass and have used it on halibut as well season fish with salt, garlic and pepper place on some heavy foil close up on the edges pour 2-3 ounces of beer in foil throw on grill and cook for 5-8 minutes depending on how thick the fish is. Simple easy and good.

[campione]

I recently had whole fish in a similar recipe as the one ralphthehalibut mentioned, but with chardonay wine instead of beer.
"A la spezziotta"
Whole calico, sandbass, or rockfish works best.
1 can stewed tomatoes, 1 cup tomatoe sauce, 1 glass chardonay, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper.
In the oven for 55 minutes or so at 375F.
It was out of this world!

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by ralphthehalibut

Not quite broiling, but this works really well in the slow cooker with beef - I've been planning on trying it with sheepshead since they hold together well in soups.

Only difference is you let the beef simmer in the slow cooker all day to get tender, but with the fish you'd just add it about 10 minutes before serving.


- about 2 pounds white fish (calico, sheepshead, WSB, etc) cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes
- couple garlic cloves
- 24 ounces of tecate, pacifico, modelo especial, or other lighter Mexican beer
- 1 package dried onion soup/dip mix
- 1 small can tomato sauce
- 1 can stewed tomatos (I like the "italian spices variety")


pour all the ingredients except the fish into a slow cooker and let it simmer all day, add
the cubed fish about 10 minutes before serving.

if you really want to get fancy, you could superheat a cast iron pan and flash sear/brown the outsides of the fiah chunks before dropping them into the soup to cook the rest of the way through.




edit: also works with red wine instead of beer

Wow! Thank you Dave - this sounds very good and seems like it would be quick to throw together. Thank you also for recommending specific beer names. The searing or blackening of the fish before adding them to my crockpot is something I love doing and I strongly recommend it to anyone. I did this with old bay blackening seasoning for my MD "crab" soup. Nom nom nom! ^_^

I can also see how red wine would work well with this recipe - I am a big fan of Toasted Head wines - I like how aggressively flavorful and spicy their dark reds are. Will give this a try...

^^^(spearboard needs a glass of wine emoticon option.... lol!)

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by campione

I recently had whole fish in a similar recipe as the one ralphthehalibut mentioned, but with chardonay wine instead of beer.
"A la spezziotta"
Whole calico, sandbass, or rockfish works best.
1 can stewed tomatoes, 1 cup tomatoe sauce, 1 glass chardonay, 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper.
In the oven for 55 minutes or so at 375F.
It was out of this world!

Campione - thank you so much for the "A la spezziotta" suggestion. I was browsing a number of chardonays today while buying beer before going to Bill's party. Any fav's of yours that would work well w/ the bass and rockfish?

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by So Cal Shaggy

Hey Kelsey, I use beer to cook bass and have used it on halibut as well season fish with salt, garlic and pepper place on some heavy foil close up on the edges pour 2-3 ounces of beer in foil throw on grill and cook for 5-8 minutes depending on how thick the fish is. Simple easy and good.

Thanks Jeff - It does sound very simple. Any beer that you like in particular? ( I am putting together a list to try...)

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by So Cal Shaggy

Hey Kelsey, I use beer to cook bass and have used it on halibut as well season fish with salt, garlic and pepper place on some heavy foil close up on the edges pour 2-3 ounces of beer in foil throw on grill and cook for 5-8 minutes depending on how thick the fish is. Simple easy and good.

Thanks Jeff - It does sound very simple. Any beer that you like in particular? ( I am putting together a list to try...)

[Kelsea]

Originally Posted by J_P

please update after you've tried a couple different beer styles kelsea

i'm interested to hear how this turns out. my initial feeling is that the best use for a quality beer is to be sitting next to your fish in a glass, but the flavors might do OK getting cooked down as you describe.

good luck

Thanks and I'll post my results - the good ( and the bad - maybe... lol!).