Pan Fried Snapper
Time: 50 min Yields: serve (or two less hungry people) Cost: $19.36 per serve Difficulty: 9/10
From Sydney Seafood School’s Seafood Specialist course which I took in blatant disregard of their more appropriate Seafood Beginners course. Cooked in a group of 4 with Lorenzo and a previous headmaster of the college next door to the college I lived in.
Ingredients
- Long grain rice 1 cup
- Water 1.5 cups
- Snapper (scaled and gutted) 700 grams (whole)
- Butter a piece
- Lemon 0.5 whole
- Parsley 3 sprigs
- Capers 2 tbsp
- White wine 2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Mayonnaise to serve
rice
Steps
- Make rice: Water and rice in pot medium high, bring to simmer then reduce to medium low, cover for 13 minutes, then remove from burner 10 minutes, then uncover and fluff.
- Make cuts across the fish below the head and above the tail, down to bone.
- Make a shallow cut along one side of the spine of the fish moving from head to tail, about 1cm. Make a second pass going deeper about 1inch.
- With hand flat on the fish, cut flat along the backbone from tail to head, staying close to the spine and sawing through the ribcage.
- Repeat on other side
- For both sides, remove the ribcage by make a curved cut around it. Then with flat fingers and gently, feel for bones and remove with tweezers. Don't twist the bones and pull the tweezers along the fish rather than away from it.
- Get all the little ingredients ready, juice lemon, chop parsley, measure the rest into handy bowls.
- On medium-high heat in oil, melt butter then add fish skin side down and fry for 2-3 minutes until skin crisp and flesh turning white.
- Flip, add parsley, capers, wine and lemon juice. Shake pan and fry another 1 minute.
- Serve to plate and pour over pan juices.
