Riba na Rostilju (Whole Grilled Fish with Lemon) (Croatian)

A simple and fresh recipe from the sea-faring tradition of the Croatian coast. People usually think only about Italy and Greece whenever the topic of Mediterranean foods comes up, but this leaves out the wonderful cuisines of adjacent countries with a less glam promo.

Such is the case of Croatia, whose coast knows an unbroken tradition of hundreds of years of cooking with seafood and most of the ingredients we label as Mediterranean. They even have a black risotto recipe with cuttlefish ink! But that's a story for another time. 

This is a recipe for when you have limited time, and once you have the barbecue grill going it will be pretty straightforward. It's great for a quiet home dinner, or larger crowd parties as well. 
Source: Saveur. 

Last year: nothing.
Two years ago: nothing.
Three years ago: nothing.
Four years ago: Rice waffles with cream cheese and chia seeds.
Five years ago: Guacamole de granada (Guacamole with pomegranate) (Spanish-Mexican) (raw vegan).
Six years ago: Chili and lemon fried shrimps.
Seven years ago: Sprinkle butter cookies (Italian).
Eight years ago: White rice pudding with rosewater and almonds (Turkish), Florentine pie (with spinach and egg) and Bramboraki (Czech potato pancakes).



Ingredients (serves 2-4):

• 2-4 whole lean fish, such as sea bream, dorado, orange roughy, or sea bass, scaled, cleaned, and dried (about 1 lb. or 450 g each)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 1 bunch parsley, for serving (optional, but recommended)

Heat a grill to medium high (you can use a full-scale barbecue grill, or a small cast iron grill, both will work just fine for this). 

Gently rub the fish with olive oil on the outside. Season with salt and pepper on the inside and outside.

Grill the fish, flapping but once, until charred and cooked through (12-15 minutes). Remove and serve with lemon wedges and parsley. It's done, dig in! :)