My husband and I currently live in Jamaica. While it doesn’t have all the comforts and conveniences of living back home in the States, it does have its perks. We’re both divers, and while the reefs have declined here–overfishing is an issue, so there’s not much big, plentiful marine life–it’s still an interesting place to dive.
We were in Discovery Bay this past weekend, which has amazing coral structures. We caught a good haul of lionfish, an invasive species in the Caribbean, which is meaty and delicious. Our diving friends also caught lobster and a huge crab.
We had a house along the shore as our base of operations, and settled in for a cookout feast on the grill Saturday. On Sunday, we packed the catch of the day in a cooler and brought it home. The result: an excellent ceviche (recipe to come) and grilled lionfish dinner. Fruits de mer indeed, as the French say.
Ingredients:
4 lionfish (scaled and gutted)
1/2 head of garlic, minced
3-5 tbsp. butter
1 small onion, sliced
1 small tomato, sliced
1 scotch bonnet, diced
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Drizzle olive oil onto a large baking pan. Lay out the lionfish in the pan.
Saute the garlic and butter in a small pan and pour onto the lionfish. Arrange the onion and tomato on top of the fish, and sprinkle on the scotch bonnet, salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about 20 min., or until the fish is cooked through while the flesh is still tender.
ATB 