Samak Baladi Country-Style Fish
(Egypt)
...the story of Mediterranean food is a story of scarcity, the contemporary richness of its cuisines being, indeed, contemporary. A lesson in all this may be drawn from this recipe. The source of all Mediterranean life, and especially true in Egypt, was bread. In Egypt, bread was called "life," 'aysh, in the eleventh century and it still is today. The relatively primitive milling technology in medieval Egypt meant that the finest white bread was often expensive and found in the cities, while the countryside usually had whole wheat bread with large flakes of bran. This recipe demonstrates how some of this bran could be used. It is called country style, which in Egypt means settlements along the Nile or its delta. This interesting way of grilling fish in Egypt is sometimes called samak al-sun or samak bi'l-radda fish with bran. It is typical of how country folk grill fish; baladi means "country-style".
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- Pure or virgin olive oil for the griddle
- 2 cups wheat bran
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground cumin seeds
- 4 whole fish (gray mullet, red snapper, grouper, redfish, yellowtail, 1½ to 2 pounds each), scaled (if desired), gutted, and cleaned, with heads and tails left on
- ¼ cup white vinegar
- Juice from ½ lemon
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1½ cups hot water
- Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, 1 chopped onion, cumin, salt, and pepper in a large ceramic or glass baking dish and marinate the fish cubes for 4 to 6 hours, covered, in the refrigerator, turning occasionally.
- Skewer the fish, putting a piece of quartered onion and a piece of green pepper between the pieces of fish and using 2 to 3 bay leaves per skewer. Continue in this manner until all the ingredients are skewered.
- Prepare a charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill on high for 20 minutes. Grill the skewered fish for 10 to 12 minutes brushing with the marinade and turning once. Serve garnished with lemon wedges and parsley.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
From "A Mediterranean Feast" by Clifford A. Wright
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