snapper recipes

I caught a nice 8-10lb snapper on Sunday and broiled the fillet, basted with garlic and butter (margarine). Then added some lime and seasonal etc. but something was missing. Anyone have a special buttery, garlicy, maybe white wine..recipe? Or any really good snapper/grouper recipes?

Funny you should ask. Guess what we just had for dinner?

Dip filets in egg and bread with instant potatoes.
Sautee in olive oil/butter until it's a beyyooteaful brown color.
Finish in hot oven if it's a thick filet.

Put some blood orange vinegar, (or just orange juice if that's handy) oil and butter in a pan, and reduce by half.
Lightly salt filet and pour sauce over it.

It was gooooood.

SueMermaid:

Funny you should ask. Guess what we just had for dinner?

Dip filets in egg and bread with instant potatoes.
Sautee in olive oil/butter until it's a beyyooteaful brown color.
Finish in hot oven if it's a thick filet.

Put some blood orange vinegar, (or just orange juice if that's handy) oil and butter in a pan, and reduce by half.
Lightly salt filet and pour sauce over it.

It was gooooood.

Click to expand...

"reducing" butter is not, well, possible. Theoretically, you could reduce - i.e. eliminate water by turning it to steam and allowing it to escape - some parts of the butter, such as water, about 10%, but at the end you would have a bit of a broken mess.

What you are attempting with the above is a butter sauce. Typically, this is done by first sweating some diced shallots, then adding an acid, (your vinegar or juice), reducing that until what is called 'au sec' - or 'almost dry' - and then whisking in whole butter without letting it boil. Correct with salt and white pepper.

Jim

Hank49:

I caught a nice 8-10lb snapper on Sunday and broiled the fillet, basted with garlic and butter (margarine). Then added some lime and seasonal etc. but something was missing. Anyone have a special buttery, garlicy, maybe white wine..recipe? Or any really good snapper/grouper recipes?

Click to expand...

Snapper is good. Really fresh snapper is really good. My way of dealing with good fish is to keep it very simple.

Try a Snapper saute a la meuniere.

Chop some parsley. (yes, parsley)
Set out a nice knob of butter. No, you can't use margarine.
Cut up a lemon, and set aside.
Put your dinner plates in the oven, to heat them. (cold plate = cold food)

Now, season your fish, dust it with flour, and place in a hot saute pan, presentation side down. No use using expensive olive oil for this. Canola is great.

brown, then turn.

When done, lift the filets out with a flexible spatula, place the fish on a napkin or paper towel.

Drain the oil from the pan. (move fast here... the fish is cooling)

Drop in your butter and swirl the pan over med heat until the butter begins to turn nut brown. With your other hand plate the fish, squeeze on the lemon juice liberally, and sprinkle liberally with the parsely.

At the table, (careful of anyone's shirt - splatter) pour the hot brown butter over the fish.

The hot butter will foam up, eseentially frying the parsley, and the reultant sauce is, in my opinion, the perfect companion for delicate flavored fish.

This is short on ingredients and time, a bit tricky on timing the first time you do it. After that, your dining companions will think you are a genius.

Jim

Thanks for the butter tip, Jim!

Typical Chinese/island style snapper:

steam the snapper - usually it's the entire fish, but fillets are ok. Steam the fish with slivered green onions and ginger and cilantro on top.

After fish is cooked, place on serving platter. Remove green onions, ginger and cilantro and replace with fresh green onions, ginger and cilantro.

Heat up a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in skillet til smoking hot - then drizzle over top of fish - same concept as the butter in recipe above.

Drizzle soy sauce over top of fish and serve with hot rice.