Whole Baked Fish in Sea Salt with Parsley Gremolata

★★★★☆  

WINNER: Your Best Way to Cook a Whole Fish

 Whole Baked Fish in Sea Salt with Parsley Gremolata recipe on Food52

Review:  I'm not sure why I find the whole fish so intimidating but I have been putting it off during the winter chapter.  We gave it four stars for its flavor and tenderness.  It was also very easy to make.  The good thing about this recipe was there weren't many ingredients or prep work.

We picked up a 2 1/2 lb fish so we cut the recipe in half.  After stuffing the fish with a few lemon slices and herbs you completely cover it in salt.  We used 2 lbs of salt (two entire plastic containers).  After it bakes for 25 minutes the salt forms a hard shell that we cracked open with a knife.  It was pretty cool.

This recipe was very easy.  We noticed that the house did not smell like fish.  I take it the salt absorbed the smell.  The fish came out very succulent and flavorful.  It was best right off the bone during the filleting process

What I learned:
- It took our fishmonger 15 minutes to clean and scale the fish, so visit the fish department first.
- Red Vermilion Snapper is the full name of Red Snapper.
- Fennel Fronds are just the leaves of the Fennel plant.

Tip: This recipe only uses the fronds on the fennel stalk and not the bulb.  I used the bulb to make a white bean dip that I will review shortly. 

Final Thoughts:  We had a lot of fish left over so it would be best making this for 4.  Does anyone have a good fish taco recipe we could use?  Making a whole fish isn't as scary as it seems.