Ok, so this was dinner tonight to celebrate my Mum’s birthday and can I just say, despite Jasper’s meltdown and Grover copying whatever Jasper was doing, it was a sensation. What made it? Apart from spectacularly fresh fish? The.most.delectable.lemon butter sauce and barely cooked freshest of fresh spring vegetables. Heaven.
Whole baked snapper
- 1kg snapper, scaled and gutted (this was just right for feeding two (female) adults and a couple of kids)
- lemon, cut into thick slices
- salt
- olive oil
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Liberally rub salt over the inside of the fish then rinse and pat dry
- Season fish with salt all over, inside and out and lay the slices of lemon in the cavity of the fish
- Drizzle over some oil and rub into the skin
- Slash the fish to ensure even cooking
- Bake for 35-45 minutes depending on your oven and your preference for how well you like your fish cooked.
Lemon Butter Sauce
- 1 tbsp very finely diced or sliced shallots (I used a third of a brown onion very finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 6 peppercorns, coarsely crushed (I didn’t do this as Mum hates anything peppery)
- 100g unsalted butter, cut into 6 chunks
- juice of 1/2 a lemon
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- Simmer shallots, wine and crushed peppercorns in a small heavy-based saucepan until there is no obvious liquid left and shallots look mushy
- Over a moderate heat start whisking in the butter, a chunk at a time, adding the next chunk just as the previous one has been incorporated.
- When all the butter is in the sauce, remove pan from the heat, still whisking, and add the lemon juice and the salt and pepper.
- Strain into a warm bowl and hold over warm water (not hot) until ready to serve (this takes minutes not hours). I didn’t do this at all as it was ready as the fish was ready and I just plated it up
Serve with barely cooked butter beans, sugar snaps, snow peas and broccolini tossed in a little salt and butter.