Key West Yellowtail Snapper Recipe

Aug 18, 2013

The past few months my local Winter Park Whole Foods has been selling Key West Yellowtail Snapper. I tend to like whole fish better because the skin adds some flavor for me. The past few years I will usually buy whole Rainbow Trout at Whole Foods (and sometimes Publix, but they don't clean it well). Once, at the Audubon Park Community Market I bought a Black Sea Bass from Wild Ocean Seafood. For some reason I shied away from the Yellowtail Snapper every time I saw it at Whole Foods. I guess it looked too big or intimidating or something.

My grandmother used to make Red Snapper when I was a kid and I used to love it. It was one of my favorite meals from her and in general. I wasn't sure if the Yellowtail would be similar to the Red. Since my grandmother was from Cuba, she probably used to have Yellowtail herself when she lived there, since it's so close to the keys.

The selection of Yellowtail Snapper at Whole Foods were pretty much all the same size. I asked the fish guy for the largest fish, so I would only need one for us. They had already gutted it and he asked if I wanted it scaled. I said yes, as long as he wasn't taking all of the skin off. As I mentioned before, I find some of the taste comes from the skin.

I think he weighed it at a little over 1 pound. My receipt only says it cost $9.37 and no weight. Next time I go to Whole Foods I'll try to find the exact price per pound.

I had an idea how I was going to make this and based it on how I remember my grandmother preparing it. I remembered lots of sliced potatoes lining the pan, with sliced onion and garlic cloves, lemons and olive oil. I'm sure there was more to it, but this is something I'm trying to recollect from over 25 years ago.

This is how I ended up making it:

Ingredients for 2 (we had some left overs):

  • 1 Key West Yellowtail Snapper - scaled and gutted
  • Oiled pan - big enough to fit Snapper
  • 1 Medium Onion Sliced
  • About 6 cloves Garlic sliced ( I like lots of garlic)
  • 3 Golden Yukon Potatoes sliced about 1/4 inch. ( I was able to slice 1 potato in 4 slices)
  • Dried thyme and parsley
  • 1 Lemon sliced
  • 1 to 2 Lemons juiced
  • 1/2 cup white wine ( I used a dry chardonnay)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil
  • 2 sprigs thyme (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Boil the sliced potatoes for about 10 minutes.
  2. Find a pan big and deep enough to fit the Snapper.
  3. Lighly oil the pan.
  4. Line the 2 long sides of the pan with the sliced potatoes,
  5. then layer with sliced onions and sliced garlic.
  6. Place the fish in the middle of the pan.
  7. Stuff the fish with about 4 slices lemon ( I also put 2 sprigs of thyme from our backyard in the Snapper).
  8. If you have extra onion slices, I put them insider and under the Snapper.
  9. Pour the white wine inside and outside the fish
  10. Pour the lemon juice over it
  11. Drizzle olive oil over everything.
  12. Sprinkle the thyme and parsley over everything.
  13. Lightly sprinkle sea salt and pepper over everything.
  14. Bake at 400 deg for 30 mins.
  15. Then broil for 3 minutes. (You might want to take the onions and garlic off before broiling, or they will burn.)

Here are pictures of my steps:

<
Pre-Meal Mixed Greens Salad
Pre-Meal Mixed Greens Salad
1/15
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
>

Comments

New Comment