Red Snapper For An Easy Weeknight

I find that I always eat the same kind of fish… and it gets me bored. I absolutely love salmon in all its forms (except when it’s overcooked) but I need a change once in a while. So the other day I was at Adonis, an amazing supermarket here in Montreal (we don’t have Whole Foods yet but we have Adonis!) and was looking at the fish they had… and they had this great looking Red Snapper that got me going! I found a nice looking recipe on the web and modified it a little. It was fantastic! If you try it with my previous quinoa recipe I promise you a great meal!

CREOLE RED SNAPPER FILLETS

Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 red snapper fillets (or 1 entire fish if you know how to make your own fillets!)

4 tbsp butter, cut in small dices

1 garlic clove, minced

6 drops of Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Creole or Cajun seasoning (with salt)

Pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven at 400˚F.

In a small bowl, melt the butter. Add the garlic, Worcestershire, Creole seasoning and pepper. Mix well.

Place your fillets in an ovenproof dish. Evenly spread the butter mixture on top. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes. 

A Feisty Caribbean Sauce Called ‘Sauce Chien’

A couple of years back I spent a few months in the Caribbean. More precisely, I was on the island of Martinique. I know… I was really lucky! While I was there, I met a chef who was kind enough to teach me the local way of cooking. In exchange, I would spend some time in his restaurant, waitressing. Nothing too stressful (the island way!) and it was all worth it. It was such an amazing experience. On top of learning great recipes, I learned how to make local drinks (yummy!), and learned the true way of cooking when you’re in a tropical country: in a kitchen where flies are all over the place and ants make little trails along the walls. Lets just say the sanitary rules are not the same over there as the ones we have here, in North America!

A great way to give some kick to fish or meat in Martinique is by covering it with a sauce called ‘sauce chien’. It’s basically pickled onions. I love onions and vinegar so this really satisfies my taste and gives my food that special island kick. It’s a feisty, simple yet very effective sauce, one which is perfect to enhance your summer meals. I even use the leftover sauce in my salads. Why not? After all, it’s made of onions and vinegar!

SAUCE CHIEN

 

INGREDIENTS

½ big white onion, diced extremely finely

White vinegar

2 small tomatoes, emptied and cut in very fine dices

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt

PREPARATION

Put the finely diced onions in a bowl. Cover completely with white vinegar. Add the tomatoes and the vegetable oil. Add some salt to taste (you need at least 1 tbsp).

Serve on top of a whole grilled fish of fish fillets. In the Caribbean they use Red Snapper. I used Pangasius and it was delicious!