Taste Buds: Mediterranean Dinner Part 1: Panfried Red Snapper with Basil and Citrus

After our first cooking adventure, Cindy and I had time to plan the next one and we had decided on making a Mediterranean dinner for Chef and Cindy’s fiance. It was pretty much by default that we chose this cuisine because of Chef’s several cookbooks staring at us. I will post our 3-course meal in, well, 3 parts, as I think each dish deserves its time on the limelight.

Our entree was the panfried red snapper with basil and citrus. Two fish dishes in a row, yes, we love fish. It’s yummy and healthy! The recipe called for red mullet but our local Nugget didn’t have any. Thankfully, Chef’s cookbook actually provides alternatives, thus the red snapper. I was reminded how much I like red snapper, because it’s light and moist. With the citrus of this dish, the fish really absorbed the flavor. After cooking red snapper so easily, I anticipate using this fish more.

Ingredients:

Filleted Red Mullet or Red Snapper

Olive Oil

Crushed Peppercorns

1 peeled and sliced Oranges

1 squeezed Oranges

1 Lemon

Flour

Butter

Shredded Fresh Basil

Salt and Ground Black Pepper

How it’s done:

Place the fish fillet in a shallow dish and pour olive oil and sprinkle crushed peppercorns over them. The recipe says to lay orange slices on the fish and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Unfortunately for us, we did not read that ahead of time. So, instead of just placing the slices over the fish, I squeezed the oranges and let the fish marinate for about 15 minutes as I was prepping other stuff.

Cut the lemon in half and remove the zest, pith and slice thinly (my advice is to use a sharp paring knife – this part to me is scary and tedious!). Squeeze the other half and set aside.

Pat the fish dry and season with salt and pepper (I apply a generous amount as I truly love pepper). Dust the fish lightly with flour.

In a frying pan, heat some of the marinade and fry the fish for about 2-4 minutes on each side. It cooks pretty quickly so keep an eye on it. Remove the fish from the pan and keep it warm.

Melt butter in the pan and add the remaining marinade plus the squeezed orange and lemon. Season this to taste. Let it simmer and reduce, basically allow the juice to thicken then add the basil. Pour this sauce on the fish and put more oranges on top.

The picture includes our side dish, Couscous with Colorful Vegetables, which you will see on my next post! It was a delightful meal. Too bad Cindy’s fiance had to chow it down quickly as he patiently waited for us to finish cooking and had to go back to work. Nonetheless, he was proud of what we had accomplished. Chef was proud too and also realized that red snapper can definitely replace our staple tilapia. Enjoy, because we did!