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May 23, 2011

Pan fried red snapper with lemon sauce

Pan fried red snapper with lemon sauce

Market day today, as I already mentioned. This time, I not only bought a whole lot of veggies, I also went to the fish stall. I had been buzzing around it for a couple of weeks now. Those people have probably thought to themselves 'when is she ever going to buy something??' a number of times, but today was the day.
First of all, I asked if they could clean the fish for me. No problem they said! Ok, well, then it was time to pick out some fish. I chose: 1 mackerel, 1 red snapper and 1 trevally.
The first choice was obvious; I like mackerel. And the other ones made me feel like I was on a holiday in Australia or Asia or somewhere far away.

The first thing I did back home was call my mom. Which went something like this 'Mom, I bought these fish and I don't know what to do with them..' of course I got the obvious suggestion that I should eat them. After all, their heads were chopped off and their insides removed so they wouldn't be doing any swimming over here, and the smell didn't make them suitable for decoration either.
My mom suggested pan frying the snapper and mackerel, and baking the trevally in my oven, good ideas!
So I decided to go for the red snapper today. First of all I didn't have a clue what to serve with it, but the fish looked Asian (nice colours!) so I went with carrot fries and an Asian spiced lemon sauce made with shii-take, onion, lemon, coriander, curry powder and coconut. Simple, but tasty!

When everything was prepared, carrots popped into the oven, I unpacked my fish and found out I didn't have a clue how to fillet it.. Oops..
YouTube brought me the solution in the form of a Hawaiian looking man who was talking about what to do when you've speared your fish from the ocean. How primal!!
Of course I didn't own a filleting knife whatsoever, so I just used my regular knife which worked out pretty well. I think I could've gotten more meat from the bones, but for a first time filleting job, I did a pretty good job if I may say so myself.

After pan frying my fillets (which were smaller than I had expected, so I simply ate them both) I took my first bite, and... pierced my mouth with a bone.. Ouch!
Luckily, that was just the first bite and I only found 3 bones in total. The lemon sauce combined perfectly with this flavourful white fish, and I loved it! I'm definitely going to buy my fish over there again, as it was pretty cheap as well.

In the afternoon I did some more shopping; I bought a 2,5l bucket of coconut oil. I use so much of the stuff that it really pays off to buy bigger quantities. And that's not all, I also got myself this fancy kitchen tool: a julienne peeler!
Foodwise; a great day!
So here's the recipe, and afterwards I'm going to clean up the mess in the kitchen.. Next up is running and practicing handstand pushups. (just because I want to be able to do those)

Pan fried red snapper with lemon sauce (serves 2)
- 4 red snapper fillets (approx. 100g each)
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 100g shii-takes, chopped
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
- 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
- juice of 1 lemon

1. Heat 1 tbsp coconut oil in a saucepan or small skillet and fry the onion and garlic until soft.
2. Add shii-takes and curry powder and fry for about a minute before adding the coconut milk and lemon juice.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer for approx. 5-8 minutes until thickened. Stir in the coriander just before it's done.
4. In the mean time, heat the other tbsp coconut oil in a frying pan and fry the snapper fillets for just 2-3 minutes on both sides until browned and done. Don't overcook them or they'll become dry.
5. Serve the fish with the lemon sauce on top or on the side and enjoy!

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