Butter & Thyme Grilled Striped Bass with Tartar Sauce

Is it just me…. or does this Dumb & Dumber scene also pop into your head any time anyone mentions “sea bass”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_y_tQMtnYo

And that is maybe my 29801023981 D & D reference on this blog. Time to watch some new films.

….So you’re saying there’s a chance?

(Or perhaps not).

Any who. It’s mid February, tulips are in full bloom and…. wtf … ? My allergies are literally ruining my dating game (that is basically nonexistent to begin with) and now going on week 3 of what sounds like a New Orleans Brass band performing in my nose. holy sneeze and rice.

Somebodyhelpme.

But with that being said, I am outside trying to soak up as much Vitamin D as possible to help out the vampy skin I’m currently rocking. And literally any weather break in this slow death of a winter, I am 100 percent outside firing up the grill. Cue, this fish. Butter & Thyme Grilled Striped Bass with Tartar Sauce served over a bed of watercress greens.

Recipe Notes:

IF you’re patient enough, your fish will not catch fire (like my photos). This happened because I was a) impatient b) more impatient. Instead of waiting for my coals to properly heat up to temperature and let sit for 25 minutes, I instead chose to add another match to the coals to speed things up and plopped the fish down not realizing there was a flame somewhere underneath. In turn, oil/butter dripped on down and ta-da. A weber wildfire was formed and my fish took the brunt of it. BUT. I didn’t mind. The skin fell off (as I wanted) and the meat was still moist. Be sure to cook the fish until it doesn’t stick to the grate, and then flip. If you flip too soon the skin will stick to the grates, but as the fish cooks the skin will tighten and crisp up, giving you beautiful grill marks and a nice crispy flesh (that isn’t torn to pieces like mine).

Again it’s on the inside that counts (said no tinder date ever) amiright?

Once the fish has finished cooking, remove and gently peel back the crispy skin (which will be very easy to do) and carefully pull the meat off the bones (nothing more annoying than pulling fish bones out of ones teeth… super un-cute). I chose to serve the fish over a bed of watercress greens… arugula would work just fine here or plop it in between two slices of bread and you got you and yo sthweet thang a fisth sthandwich.

Butter & Thyme Grilled Striped Bass with Tartar Sauce

Prep time:  30 mins

Cook time:  15 mins

Total time:  45 mins

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Ingredients

Grilled Fish:

• 2 lb Whole Bass, cleaned
• 1 lemon, sliced into wedges
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
• Herbed Butter (Sea Below)
• Kosher Salt
• Pepper
• 3 lemons sliced in half
• Tartar Sauce (see Below)
• Watercress Greens (or Arugula for serving over)

Herbed Butter:

• 3 tbsp butter room temp
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove minced
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 tsp fresh thyme

Tartar Sauce:

• ¾ cup greek yogurt
• 2 sweet butter pickles diced
• 1 tbsp grain dijon mustard
• 1 lemon, squeezed
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, torn
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

For the Fish:

1. Heat a charcoal grill to 400 degrees (about medium-high) and let coals sit for 20 minutes.
2. Next rub/season the cavity of fish with sliced lemon wedges, fresh thyme sprigs and salt & pepper.. Mix the herbed butter ingredients together in a small bowl and then rub all over fish.
3. Place fish onto grill grates and flip once, until skin is a little charred (about 10 minutes), flip and let cook for an additional 7-9 minutes.
4. While fish is grilling add lemon halves onto grill and let char. Remove and set aside for serving.
5. Once fish is done grilling, remove, peel back skin and carefully pull meat off bones. Serve over a bed of watercress greens, grilled lemon wedge and drizzle with homemade tartar sauce (recipe below)

Tartar Sauce

1. Add all ingredients into a small bowl, whisk together. Salt and pepper to taste.

3.5.3226

Sea Bass had a date with Jenny Craig