King George whiting on the barbie

SERVES 4 AS A MAIN

I used rice flour in this recipe to give the fish a slightly crispy texture, however, I am not sure that it makes much difference when cooking on a barbecue. I had quite a bit of the seasoned flour left over and we also had some flathead tails so I put the flour into a bowl, poured in some of the Bellarine Bitter and made a beer batter. I dipped the flathead tails into the batter and deep-fried them — they were magnificent! The rice flour crisped them up beautifully and the salty spiciness from the sichuan was really accentuated — in short — it is a great beer batter.

1 tablespoon sichuan peppercorns

90 g (3¼ oz/½ cup) rice flour

1 tablespoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

10 King George whiting fillets (or snapper or bream), skin off

lemon wedges, to serve

Preheat a barbecue plate to high. Put the sichuan peppercorns in a small frying pan and place over high heat on the barbecue and toast gently until they begin to smell fragrant and smoky. Use a mortar and pestle to grind them to a powder.

Place the rice flour, salt, white pepper and sichuan pepper in a plastic bag and shake well to mix the seasoning through the flour. Put the whiting fillets into the bag and give it a good shake, coating the fillets completely.

Oil the hot barbecue plate, remove the whiting fillets from the bag and slap or shake off the excess flour. Place the whiting onto the barbecue plate and cook for several minutes before turning and cooking the other side for several minutes more. The fish should be nicely coloured and flake apart when tested with a fork. Put onto a serving plate and garnish with lemon wedges.