To keep the peace in my house I have to cook my fish out side. Does any one have a good recipe for bluegill and perch on the grill out side? I searched for a recipe on the recipe forum but could not find any thing for grilling. Just frying and soups.
To bad you can’t fry, that is the only way to eat those fish.
Fillet those puppies and put a little cajun seasoning and season all on them and put them in a bowl.
Buy some finely chopped up hickory wood chips. Measure out about 2 cups of chips and get about 1/3 of them wet. Wrap them in foil (makes it easier to clean) so they are about 6 inches long, poke 3 or 4 holes on the top and put them under the grate on the grill. Start your grill and put it on high until you start seeing those chips smoke. As soon as they are smoking throw your fillets on and enjoy! It still is no comparison to the old frying pan, but it is good and healthy.
MMMMMMM…semi-smoked baaaasssss…[;)]
Thanks. I am a designer for a cabinet shop. I can get all the hickory wood chips would ever need.
For some folks, frying is not a healthy way to cook fish. Others object to the smell of frying fish. While I dearly love fried perch and bluegills (and white bass, etc.), I have a lot of other different ways to cook them.
The thing about those panfish that makes them tough to cook on a standard grill is that they are small fillets and they fall apart when cooked. One way to deal with that is with a special non-stick fish grill, iike in the picture below.
And, when you DO grill, them, only turn them once.
You can also use an adjustable fish basket, like this one. You just stack a bunch of fish inside, close the cover, season them to taste and grill the heck out of them. You turn the basket a time or two if needed and dribble on a bit of lemon butter while they are cooking.
A third way to cook small fillets, using the backyard grill, is “foil broiling”. Use a small cookie sheet and cover with foil. Lay out the fillets on the foil and then season them with garlic salt, seasoned pepper, some lemon juice, etc. Dot them well with butter and then put them in a low heat grill…covered…for about 10-15 minutes. Scoop out the cooked fish and put it on noodles or rice and then pour the juice from the pan over the fish.
Here are a couple of pics of some trout done that way, but you can do them with any fish.
OVEN READY.JPG (82.4 KB)
FRESH BAKED.JPG (73.1 KB)