Spicy Slow Grilled Yaji Fish
It’s been a long break from here and I humbly apologize. *bows and presents flowers*.
It’s spring break this means no sleepless nights or waking up at 6 AM to run which means more time to cook and satisfy cravings.
One huge craving was Fish and cold garri. (if you know you know!). So I got these two beautiful mid sized tilapia fishes (is this correct?). I think so…
And guess who did a celebratory dance with the fishes?
So I assembled my infantry from my pantry (see what I did there, dropping my rap album soon) and decided to put a twist on the fish flavors and add Yaji also known as ‘Suya Pepper’ to give it this extra different flavor.
Well, it worked! Nailed it.
Ingredients
- Whole Fish(es)
- 2-3 Onion Bulbs
- Habanero Peppers
- 3 Teaspoons Yaji (Suya Pepper)
- 2 Teaspoons Thyme
- 2 Teaspoons Curry
- Ginger
- 2 Teaspoons Garlic
- 2 Teaspoons Salt
- 3 Seasoning Cubes
- Oil
For this you’ll need all these ingredients and also a little bit of Nigeria’s ex-first lady, patience.
- Clean out your fish properly, take out all the insides gills also. Now make lacerations on the sides of the fish and set aside.
- In a blender, combine all the seasonings for the marinade, onions, habanero, ginger, thyme, curry, seasoning cubes, garlic and salt with a little water and blend to a paste. This incorporates all the flavors and makes sure it will be evenly distributed. Perfect ey?
- In the pan you’ll put in the oven (I used disposable foil pans), pour the marinade over the fish and with love massage the marinade (wear a glove or use a spoon), between the cuts you made earlier, all over the fish and in the sides also and cover it up and let sit overnight. The patience test.
- Wake up the next morning, heat your oven to 375 F and bake for 40 minutes and then turn the other side and do another 40 minutes.
- At this point it is almost done, so I switched pans and rubbed the Yaji spice on the fish and drizzled some oil on it and left it for another ten minutes. Perfect!
- Fish came out perfect on the outside, moist and spicy in the middle, flavor to the bone and craving satisfied.
I had this first with cold garri and then later on with fries and plantain. Flexing!
