Just a few weeks ago one of my sons and I went fishing for black sea bass out of Falmouth, Massachusetts. When we got back, I commented to our boat captain as he cleaned our catch about the amount of waste that went into filleting the fish. The boat captain the next slip down heard my comment and mentioned that we Americans are about the only culture that fillets fish. Most everyone else cooks their fish whole. That captain, Capt. Willy Hatch, who runs Machaca Charters, then told me that he particularly likes to coat the fish skin with a dry rub, meaning dried herbs and spices, and then cook the fish, with just the head removed, in hot oil, which essentially steams the fish from the inside out in its own juices. Capt. Willy, great guy, then prepared two fish exactly the way I needed to cook them whole as shown in the picture below.

The next night, I cooked one of the fish whole along with some chopped fresh leek – the long, stalk-shaped onion-like vegetable you see above. Like I mention in the brand new picture book recipe you can get by clicking any picture on this page,…

…I only used fresh leek for simplicity’s sake. You, however, can use any quicker cooking vegetables you prefer like bell peppers, asparagus, mushrooms (not technically a vegetable but still great), onions, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, eggplant, etc. I only mention using quicker cooking vegetables, not things like potatoes, for efficiency’s sake.

As always, imagination and your personal taste are your only limits!