Dressed Black Bass

More conversations over fish and was convinced to buy a whole black bass. Looked up a lot of recipes for smoking whole bass and they were all outrageously complex. Until I looked at the recipe for the Egg, which (in a nutshell) was essentially 'stick it on a piece of greased foil and close the Egg and come back when it's done.' So that is what we did.

To semi-compensate, I tried to make hollandaise sauce. Major fail, as I wasn't paying attention and the eggs cooked and separated out. So I strained it through a very fine sieve, added the fish juices to it, and used the eggs as a garnish.

Recipe:
(generously serves 2)

1 whole black bass (approx 3 lbs), gutted, descaled and fins trimmed

1/4 c coconut oil
1 leek (white and light green parts)
1/3 c pecans
2 shiitake mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

Hollandaise sauce (use whatever recipe you have)

Cooking note: If you are using a grill other than a Big Green Egg, don't trust the fish grilling instructions because they will probably dry your fish out. Go wtih whatever your grill manufacturer says.

Smoke fish at 250 for 40 - 45 minutes.

While fish is smoking, make dressing. Heat oil in a heavy pan and add other ingredients. Cook until leeks are done. Remove from heat.

When fish has about 10 minutes left, start the hollandaise. If it fails, strain it through a very fine sieve and use the eggy part for garnish.

Take the fish off the grill and split it in half. You will have to pull out the skull and the spine (see above), and any other bones that don't obviously split in half. Reassemble each half of the fish on a plate. Add the dressing and pour sauce over. Add the garnish if you need to :-).