BBQ'd Red Snapper and Trevally

When it's fishing season you know we are going to BBQ/Grill plenty of fish. And this past week I have done my share. My last grilling experience was grilling Red Snapper (Fafaet/Babui on Guam) and Trevally (Skipjack/Tarakito on Guam).

I recently went bottom fishing out to the Southern Banks of Guam about 50 miles out and that is where the snapper came from. The trevally was a result of kayak fishing in the Coco's Lagoon, located in Southern Guam. There is no short supply of fish on Guam.

My wife, Lupe, loves fresh fish. Especially when it's BBQ'd. So I fired up my Santa Maria style grill and got down to business.

Here is my grill made by my son-in-law Barry Quinata of Umatac, Guam.

It's a real simple process that turns out a fantastic flavor.

Here are the steps:

Scale and gut the fish.

Make two diagonal slices on each side of the fish so that the seasoning can permeate into the flesh a lot easier.

Olive oil the fish. This helps to "non-stick" the fish as well as add a little crispness to the skin.

Lightly salt, pepper and garlic powder the fish inside and out.

Make sure the grill is very clean and well oiled (just maintenance)

To add another layer of "non-stick" I cut a coconut tree branch, strip the leaves and cut up the main stalk into smaller pieces so that I can lay the fish on those to guarantee there will be no sticking to the grill. If there are no coconut trees around your area, any "green" branches will do, such as willow, etc. You can see this process here.

Grill the fish on one side, then the other, squeezing fresh calamansi lemon as it cooks.

The calamansi are the smaller lemons in this photo.

When done to perfection, serve it up with white rice and lemon finadenne. But the sides are all up to you.

Again, here is the picture of the finished product that I served my wife. I poured the lemon finadenne' over the top.

Fish, cooked over a wood fire, is outstanding. Especially if it is not overcooked and still moist.

Until next time....

What have we been BBQing lately???? Plenty

Been so busy cooking, both indoors and out, planting and fishing that I haven't posted in a while. So let me show you a few pics of what's been happening......

Grilled Firehouse Burger. You can read about it and see the rest of the pictures here.

Chamorro Burger.

Portobello/Chamorro Burger.

I wrote a blog post on both of these burgers. Read all about them here.

Even did a smoked Yellow-Fin Tuna Burger. Here is the photo.

Grilled some chicken...

Even Eggplant, Pork Chop Steaks and Portobellos went down on the grill..

And we mustn't forget the fresh bottom fish...

So as you can see, there has been a lot going on over here at our place. Planting, cooking and fishing has consumed most of my time. It gets so tiring living this boring life. But I don't have a choice.........I live on Guam. As my good buddy Rudy the Mechanic says, "It's just like that!!!"

Until next time....

BBQ'd Grouper (Gadao) and Eggplant

My wife, Lupe, wanted me to BBQ some Gadao, which is the Chamorro term for grouper. Lupe loves BBQ'd grouper. I decided to make full use of the fire so I added BBQ'd eggplant, and hot plate grilled onions and cowboy fries (potato wedges) just to round out the meal.

Enough said!! Here are the pics....

Got these pan sized grouper all laid out. I just seasoned with sea salt and a little garlic powder.

Closeup of the grouper. These are just about done. BBQ'd grouper taste fantastic. Especially with the flavor that the smoke imparts on them.

I placed the eggplants directly on the coals to BBQ them. Notice I try to keep the stems from burning by protecting them with wood or raising up off the coals. Need the stems for "handles" later on.

Here is the finished eggplant. To prepare this dish you can view the process on one of my previous posts here.

Built up the fire, placed the hot plate and caramelized the onions in butter. Seasoned with a little fresh ground black pepper.

Cut the potato into eight pieces, seasoned with sea salt and black pepper and grilled on the hot plate with the remaining butter.

Here is the finished eggplant dish in the coconut milk finadenne' (Chamorro hot dipping sauce). You can see how we utilized the natural "handles" of the eggplants.

BBQ'd grouper served and already being attacked!! Lupe is one fast gal when it comes to her BBQ'd fish. Watch your hands around her!!! 

Lupe's plate. You can see her lifting up a hot pepper. Just about every bite will include a hot pepper. Lupe can take plenty of heat. I gave her a Ghost pepper and she took it down like a popsicle. But she did say it was hot!!!

My eggplant with that coconut milk/lemon finadenne'. You can see all the hot peppers. They are a must eat with this dish.

To top off our meal, we also had the staple of Guam, white rice.

Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. Finished up by 5:30 pm and went out to the garden to work it off.

Another great day on Guam!!

Until next time....

Guam Grouper BBQ

Living on a tropical island you just have to love seafood. One of my favorites is Grouper. Here is some information about groupers so you know what I am talking about: Grouper Info.

As some of you may already know, I love to fish. On a recent bottom fishing trip we caught some poundage and I just had to BBQ one of my favorites....the Red Grouper pictured above. Other names for this particular grouper is Gadao, Lapulapu, Lyretail Grouper, just to name a few. But one thing is for certain, they are delicious BBQ'd.

The prep is fairly basic. Here is what I do:

I scaled and gutted the fish and cleaned the body cavity out real good with a strong water nozzle. Does the trick everytime.

Then I made 3 diagonal slices on each side of the body to allow for the seasoning to penetrate better.

I oiled the fish down with olive oil so it doesn't stick on the grill. The oil also gives the fish a little extra crispiness once it is BBQ'd.

Then I season the fish inside and out with sea salt, rubbing the salt into the flesh.

And the next step is to grill, or as we say on Guam, BBQ the fish.

It takes maybe about 10 minutes per side over my wood flame fire. I have my grill up about 1 foot over the coals. 

After having BBQ'd both sides, I sit him up and Que the inside just a bit. I don't want to dry the flesh out.

The "cheek" muscle is the tastiest part of this fish. We call it the filet mignon of the fish.

Here is the business end of the grouper. Don't put your hand in there. It may tickle just a little..

So no more than 30 minutes later, it's chow time!!!!

What I did not mention was that this was a special request by my wife, Lupe. I included some pics of her at the dinner table.

Lupe wasted no time with her feast. By the time I got settled down with my camera, she had finished almost half of the fish.

Lupe's meal would not be complete without her finadenne' (Guam hot sauce).

This is where Lupe "totches" or dips her every morsel in for some extra "pika" before it goes "down the hatch"!!!

Now doesn't Lupe look like a happy camper?? She is concentrating so hard she doesn't even know I'm there or so it seems. And she knows that whole fish is hers. Even has her little basket of fresh calamansi lemon right in front of her for that extra tang. Lupe knows how to eat her fish.

Well, folks...that is how it's done here. And this is happening all over the island everyday. It's like we can BBQ everyday, but we get serious on the weekends here on Guam.


So if you like to BBQ or eat out and have a great food fest and maybe even enjoy a few "cocktails", Guam is the place. You will never forget a trip to Guam. I guarantee it!!!

Until next time....

Smoked Yellow Fin Post on the Barbecue Bible.com Web Site!!!

Hey everyone, Guam has garnered the national spotlight, again, in the BBQ world. My BBQGuam Smoked Yellow Fin blog post was featured on Steven Raichlen's Barbecue Bible website. Steven Raichlen, known as the "BBQ Guru" is an award winning author with numerous outdoor cooking programs on PBS.

Here is the link to that post:

http://www.barbecuebible.com/blog/2012_01/23_guamanian_yello.php

Don't forget to check out Steven's other blog posts and links on his site. He has truly amazing content. And sign up for his Barbecue Bible newsletter while you are at it. Talk about out of this world BBQ recipes. It is all there.

For more fantastic recipes from Guam and our neighboring islands please visit 671Recipes.com. You will find some of the greatest island fare imaginable within their pages. Search by topic such as cake, chicken, pies, etc.

Thank you to Steven Raichlen and Nancy Loseke for showcasing part of the wonderful cuisine of Guam to the world. 

Until we meet again....

Smoking Yellow Fin Tuna....Guam Style!!

With all the water surrounding the island of Guam, it goes without saying that fish is abundant. As a matter of fact, fishing our waters is down-right great!!!  One of my favorites methods of preparing fish is to smoke it, especially yellow fin tuna.

Today I did just that. Had some yellow fin tuna, also known as Ahi (Hawaiian) and at the urging of my wife, Lupe, decided to smoke it. 

I normally smoke about 5-10 pounds at a time. I prep the tuna the night before. I sliced the loins up into 1/2 inch thick steaks. I then put them into a brine consisting of about a half a gallon of water and one cup of kosher salt and two cups of brown sugar. Mix this all up and add the tuna. I make sure that all the tuna is completely submerged so that every piece gets thoroughly soaked in the brine.

The next day I smoke the tuna over my wood pit that is enclosed on three sides. I like the front of the pit completely open. This allows for a lot of the smoke to escape but provides for a nice, mellow smoke. And I use all local fuel.....tangantangan wood, and coconut husks. The tangantangan wood has a red oak flavor. I love it. The coconut husks are the outside, protective layer of the coconut. But this coconut husk provides for a mellow coconut aroma and flavor. So the end product is a smoked tuna that has a mellow, but very distinguishable island aroma and flavor. Very popular among those that have tried it.

Here is the coconut tree...

Coconut...

Husking the coconut (opening it up to access the coconut seed itself)....

The husk....

Tangantangan Tree....

We cut them when they are 6 inches in diameter or larger for smoking.

So after about 5 hours of semi-open smoking the job was done.

Here is the final product....

Hope you give it a try. If you don't have whole coconuts, you can burn just the nut. It will give off that same, tropical aroma and flavor.

Until next time....

BBQ for Wednesday Night Scrabble Party

My wife Lupe has a Scrabble Party just about every Wednesday night. So I am usually voluntold to prepare something for everyone to eat. Of course Lupe does her share of the work also.

This past Wednesday, Jan. 11, I grilled fish and top sirloin steak. Lupe made her delicious spaghetti and veggie salad. She also made her tartar sauce and lemon finadenne' sauce.

Here are pictures of what we prepared for our dinner:

Fresh Guam Reef Fish.

18 pound Top Sirloin Block.

3 inch thick by 1 foot long Sirloin Steak.

Tangantangan wood used for fire. Similar in aroma and flavor to Red Oak.

Reef fish being grilled.

Sirloin steak on the grill.

Fish is cooked!!!

Small groupers are very tasty.

Snappers and trevally.

Lemon Finadenne', the Hot!!! Chamorro Sauce.

 The Calamansi Lemons use for the finadenne'.

Lupe's fresh veggie salad consisting of cucumber, wing beans (sigidiyas), eggplant, tomatoes, green onions, sprinkled with calamansi lemon juice and salted to taste.

Lupe's homemade spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage.

Spaghetti noodles with melted butter and garlic powder.

Chamorro dessert called Letiya. Letiya is a cake with a egg, sugar, cornstarch, Carnation Milk, and cinnamon frosting. Super delicious. I will place the recipe for this into the recipes section.

The other players also brought their pot luck dishes like corn and beef vegetable soup, banana bread, and ice cream.

Needless to say, everyone had plenty to eat. Oh, and the Scrabble game......it did not get over til about 12:30am.

Until next time....