Pescado Zarandeado – Nayarit Style Grilled Fish

Pescado Zarandeado – Nayarit Style Grilled Fish

Pescado Zarandeado gets its name from the Spanish word “zarandeado,” which means “shaken” or “disarranged.” The dish is named after its unique cooking method, which involves flipping the fish back and forth several times over a wood fire or hot coals.

Pescado Zarandeado traces its origin to pre-Hispanic times, more specifically, according to the legend, of the island of Mexcaltitán, in Nayarit. Remember that in indigenous times part of the Nayarit state and south of Sinaloa were unified by the Totorame people. It is a fish dish, preferably red snapper, butterflyed, seasoned, smoked on a grill with mangrove wood.

Now it is a favorite dish for families because with a single fish of several kilos you can feed everyone until they are full.

Ingredients

1 whole butterfled white-fleshed fish (around 2 lb, 908 g), such as seabass, snapper, grouper, etc.
1 tbsp Huichol sauce, or other bottled red sauce, such as Valentina, Cholula, etc.
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp yellow mustard
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp dry oregano, or marjoram
Salt, to taste
Limes, juice from one, plus more, to serve
1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus more for brushing

Prepare wet rub by placing hot sauce, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic powder, black pepper, and oregano in a bowl and mix until well incorporated Then add the juice from one lime, approximately two tablespoons.

Season with salt, to taste and mix thoroughly. Set aside.  

Clean and butterfly the fish.

Brush the fish with vegetable oil then place, skin side down, on rack of a grilling basket. Season flesh side with salt, to taste, and spread about 2/3 of the reserved wet rub. Place in a grilling basket, and close.

Add one tablespoon of vegetable oil to the remaining wet rub, and mix until a uniform sauce is obtained.

Place the fish in the grilling basket in the middle of the grill, with the flesh side down; cook for three minutes, then flip to the skin side down.

 Spread the reserved sauce from the bowl on the meat.  After three minutes, flip to flesh side down again; with the drippings from the added oily sauce.

Allow to cook on that side just until the sauce has dried and the flesh looks charred.