The incredible, edible (and delicious) Lion fish
So you’ve probably heard about the invasion. You know, the invasion of florida waters by non-native and invasive lion fish? Well if you haven’t, they’re a fish, they’re here and they are bad news for our reefs. Luckily for us, they also happen to be one the tastiest morsels our ocean has to offer!
The ocean was total glass, the sky was clear, the water was a deep sapphire blue, and warm as bath water. If you can imagine driving a 22ft boat on a huge bowl of liquid sapphire, a never ending horizon and some Led Zeppelin playing over the stereo as I steered a course to my reef, then you would be imagining the day I was having. Seriously epic stuff.
The mission today was to dive (of course) but also to help ease the burden on our local ecosystems by harvesting some lion fish for dinner. This mission was expertly accomplished and a number of the invasive, but tasty fish were put on ice.
Once home, I already knew what I was going to do…
Ceviche!
The lion fish meat is extremely tender (not mushy) but tender, and has a wonderful and delicate flavor that I hate to alter it too much. Tonight was going to be ceviche night. To me, there isn’t much better than a tangy, sweet, natural bite of fresh fish ceviche style. For the uninitiated, this just means that the fish is allowed to marinate in some acidic lemon and lime juice and seasonings for a while. It actually gets, “cooked,” while in there.
So, more lime than lemon juice, salt, pepper, some sugar, tomato, and green onions were added as well as the lion fish. After 15 mins in the fridge, it was ready. I dusted just a tiny bit of smoked Hungarian paprika and it was truly one of the best meals of my life.
Oh yeah, I also cooked up some mangrove snapper. Bread flower, no batter, just into a pan of butter an olive oil (would have been way better with coconut oil) sear it up, take it off while still medium rare and it was perfect.
I hope you enjoyed the post. If you made it through the whole thing, way to go! Be sure to check out my other posts! If you have a food idea or suggestion, please send it!
