Barramundi recipe

Australia's signature fish is cooked skin-down on the barbecue until the skin shatters, then perfumed with lemon myrtle and paperbark smoke.

30 minuteseasy9 ingredients

Ingredients

• 800 g barramundi fillets
• 6 lemon myrtle leaves
• 60 g butter
• 40 g macadamia nuts
• 2 clove garlic
• 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

How to make Barramundi

1. Pat 4 barramundi fillets (about 200 g each) completely dry with paper towel, then rub the skin with 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt.
2. Mash 60 g soft butter with 2 crushed garlic cloves and 1 tsp ground lemon myrtle, then chill it.
3. Heat a barbecue plate or a heavy pan until it is properly hot. Lay the fillets skin side down and press them flat for 10 seconds so the skin stays in contact.
4. Cook without moving them for 4 to 5 minutes, until the skin is brown and crisp. That is about 80 percent of the cooking.
5. Lay 6 fresh lemon myrtle leaves on the flesh, flip the fillets so the skin faces up, and finish for 1 to 2 minutes. Rest 2 minutes.
6. Melt the lemon myrtle butter over the fish, scatter 40 g toasted crushed macadamias and squeeze half a lemon on top.
7. The coastal Indigenous method wraps the fish in soaked paperbark thrown straight on the coals to smoke it. Paperbark is hard to buy outside Australia, so leave it out rather than substitute it; closing the barbecue lid for 4 minutes gets you the nearest thing.
8. Grind black pepper over and serve with the remaining lemon.

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