Whats your favourite snapper recipe/prep for the table?

[CaptMorgs]

Hi,

I haven't eaten many fresh snapper before, but baked a whole snapper the other night with onion, garlic, butter, small roma tomatoes, lemon, chives, salt & pepper. It came out alright... (50cm fish, bout 40min on 180, wrapped in baking paper because I ran out of foil) it came out ok, well it was good but I have had better fish. Maybe I have been spoiled in the past, but ive been thinking there must be a better way to make it taste better? Maybe baking wasn't the best option..

Any favourite recipes or techniques I should know before the next one comes home?

cheers

[kads]

I haven't made this yet, but I saved it on my PC for the day I catch a big red..!!

Ingredients
One whole snapper, around 1.5-2kg. Scaled, gutted and gilled
Large green King Prawns, enough to fill the snapper
A few fresh chillies
Around a 1/4-1/2 a cup of fresh chopped dill
Lemon
Two cloves of fresh garlic
Half a cup of white wine
Two teaspoons of sesame seed oil

Preparation Finely chop the chillies, garlic and dill. I used two small chillies, this is enough to enhance the flavour without making it too hot. Its not meant to taste like chilli fish!

Squeeze the juice from a decent sized lemon, or two small ones into a container. Add about 1/4 - 1/2 a cup of white wine. Mix in the chilli and dill.

Peel the King Prawns and place in a bowl. Add one to two teaspoons of the sesame seed oil and the finely chopped garlic. Mix this in so that each of the prawns is covered by the oil and garlic.

The skin on both sides of the snapper needs to be scored with about four diagonal lines. This is because the skin will shrink during cooking, bending the fish and making it difficult to keep it flat.

Stuff the Snapper's cavity with the king prawns. Then seal it with skewers to stop the prawns slipping out. They get pretty slippery because of the sesame oil.


Place the stuffed snapper into a dish, cover with the lemon juice and wine mixture, and place in the fridge.

Important: The lemon juice will start to cook the fish. The fish should be in the mixture for no more than half an hour, and should be turned over once in the mix to get an even covering.

Cooking I cooked this on a four burner BBQ with a hood. This is done by placing the grill plate and flame tamer in the middle of the BBQ, with the two middle burners turned off and the outside burners providing in-direct heat. Once the hood is closed you have an effective oven. You can also cook this in a large baking tray in the oven.

One the BBQ has pre-heated to 180C place the fish in the center of the plate. Pour some of the lemon juice and wine mixture over the fish.

This fish will need to cook for between one and two hours at 180C. This depends on this size of your fish, as well as the BQQ or oven being used.


To check on the fish's progress you can lift the belly flap. If the flesh on the inside of that flap is not cooked, then the fish is not ready. A final check of the fleshiest part of the fish, the shoulder, will tell you when the fish is ready.

At about the half way point turn the fish over. Use tonges to grasp the fish around the belly area, keeping the prawns in, and lift at the same time from the head area. This is also how you should lift the fish out when it is done.

Once turned, pour over the remainder of the mixture.

When the fish is cooked, the flesh should be moist and tender, but should not be sticking to the bones. The prawns will be ready when the fish is. Being in the belly of the fish, and the seasame oil, stops the prawns from over cooking and drying out.

[cheaterparts]

well it was good but I have had better fish. Maybe I have been spoiled in the past,

this gets my vote to there are much better eating fish than snapper

I haven't made this yet, but I saved it on my PC for the day I catch a big red..!!

Ingredients
One whole snapper, around 1.5-2kg. Scaled, gutted and gilled
Large green King Prawns, enough to fill the snapper
A few fresh chillies
Around a 1/4-1/2 a cup of fresh chopped dill
Lemon
Two cloves of fresh garlic
Half a cup of white wine
Two teaspoons of sesame seed oil

seams a waste stuffing a snapper with good gummy bait

[ratfish]

seams a waste stuffing a snapper with good gummy bait

Haha I thought the exact same thing Cheater, Snapper's a decent fish and you can do a bit to it but nothing really stand out compared to other options out there. Any of your standard options tend to work, I generally bake them with some chilli and extras. They go well in nice thai soup or stir fry, I find them a good option to add to something else rather than on its own.

[Bigyakka]

At the moment cooking green snapper and oven roasted potatoe curry yum uum

[squid ink]

Made Thai fish cakes with a fillet tonight.

To me Snapper seem better and tastier when cooked whole wrapped in foil on the BBQ with olive oil, wine, herbs and veggies all steamed together in the foil parcel.

Still got to learn how to make a decent meal with the callamari, whenever I cook it it always goes tough and rubbery and Ive caught and tried plenty. Ive pretty much given up with them now and just catch them for bait.

[Ghurkin]

Made Thai fish cakes with a fillet tonight.

To me Snapper seem better and tastier when cooked whole wrapped in foil on the BBQ with olive oil, wine, herbs and veggies all steamed together in the foil parcel.

Still got to learn how to make a decent meal with the callamari, whenever I cook it it always goes tough and rubbery and Ive caught and tried plenty. Ive pretty much given up with them now and just catch them for bait.

Hey Neil, show me where you catch squid and Ill teach you how to make the tastiest salt and pepper squid my family has ever hadm starting to drool just thinking about it.

as for whole baked snapper, tried it from various people never had one that was great, presentation looks great, but the fish was mediocre.

[Ghurkin]

At the moment cooking green snapper and oven roasted potatoe curry yum uum

yummmo , green snapper?

[delboy1203]

Still got to learn how to make a decent meal with the callamari, whenever I cook it it always goes tough and rubbery and Ive caught and tried plenty. Ive pretty much given up with them now and just catch them for bait.

Learnt a trick from a chef that I used to work with. Soak the calamari in a bowl with sliced kiwi fruit. Makes it lovely and tender.

About 2 hours should be long enough. Some people say longer (even overnight!), but I find that the calamari starts to taste like kiwi then.

[kads]

.....all I do is cut it into rings, dip in a beer batter and deep fry for about 45 seconds...and they are the bomb.!...I have never tried soaking in kiwi as the way I cook them they are tender as you can get.!!