96 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • Late Summer 2018 TheCoastalBend.com Coastal Bend Food • Pour the sauce over the fish • Place the fish in the fridge to marinate for 2-4 hours (optional) Smoking the Fish • Prepare the grill for two zone or indirect grilling with coals on one side and nothing on the other • Target temp inside the grill is 250 degrees • Add a couple onion slices and 2-3 cloves of garlic to the coals and put the snapper on the other side • Smoke until the fish reaches 130 degrees then cover with foil to form a pouch around the fish • When the fish gets to 160, remove from the grill and serve When preparing the stuffing and sauce ingredients, you should save the red onion ends and a few garlic cloves. You will want to toss them onto your mesquite or hickory wood fire before smoking—they will add a distinct flavor to the fish through the smoking process. You will notice that cooking will be done in a two-stage process, one using direct heat from the wood below, and one in the smoker, but not directly over the wood fire itself. After you create your aluminum foil “boat,” your first stage of smoking will have the fish on the uncovered, non-wood side, until the fish tem- perature is 130°F—this will allow the citrus, herb and garlic flavors to smoke into the meat without accelerating the cooking process. For the second stage of smoking, you will cover and enclose the fish with aluminum foil and place it directly onto the wood side of the grill. All of this is done with the smoker lid closed, and left closed, opened only to check the temperature of the meat. Each stage of smoking will take about an hour for a 5 lb. fish, but you should cook to a target temperature of 150-160°F. Add grilled Gulf shrimp and pair with a Texas white wine, and you’ll be in seafood heaven!