Masgouf

Before you start

• ask the fishmonger to butterfly it through the back and leave it in one piece
• a grill or barbecue you can get properly hot — a domestic one is not a riverbank fire, and this is as close as it gets indoors

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 700gwhole sea bass — or carp, which is the original
• 1large flatbreads
• 1½ tbspolive oil
• 1 tbsptamarind paste
• 2 tspturmeric and paprika
• 300gtomatoes and onion
• 1lemon
• 3garlic cloves

Method

6 steps

1. chop · 9m

   Fish opened flat through the back with the spine left in and laid out like a book, then rinsed and dried very thoroughly inside and out. A wet fish steams instead of roasting.

2. fold · 5m

   Tamarind, turmeric, paprika, crushed garlic, oil and salt beaten to a loose paste and brushed over the flesh side only. The skin side gets nothing — it goes closest to the fire and anything on it burns.

3. rest · 20m walk away

   Twenty minutes and no longer. Tamarind is acidic and given an hour it starts breaking the flesh down.

4. grill · 25m

   Skin side to the heat first and given nearly all of the time there — twenty minutes or more under a hot grill, or on coals pushed to the sides rather than directly beneath. It is done when the thickest part flakes cleanly off the bone and nothing is still translucent along the spine.

5. grill · 8m

   Flesh side turned to the heat for the last few minutes only, with the tomatoes and onion charring alongside and the bread warmed at the end.

6. finish · 4m

   Onto a board whole, with lemon, the charred vegetables and the bread. There is no cutlery in this: masgouf is eaten with fingers and torn bread.