Beware vegetarians, vegans and queasy omnivores. There is imagery here that may not be pleasing to some of you. We had the luck of catching a large and tasty mutton snapper (which despite the name taste nothing like mutton) while I was at home over the holidays. This is a fish that would have cost me around 80 dollars at Whole Foods. Of course, when you catch a fish for free, it has to be cleaned before any cookery can take place. While I have many years of fish cleaning experience, my brother did the task this time around.
Then I laid her out on some foil while we stoked a nice fire in the stove.
I rubbed the snapper all over with fresh ground black pepper (from the farm), salt, lime juice, (again, from the farm), and Marie Sharps hot sauce. I stuffed her with onions and her roe, topped her with more onions, and a friend's home made salsa, and for a special touch included a couple allspice leaves in the wrapping.
Then I sprinkled the fish with a drizzle of olive oil, folded up the foil and placed the packet right on the burning hot metal surface of our wood stove, where she roasted up into a delicious feast. The subtle flavour from the allspice leaves complemented but did not overwhelm the fish. We enjoyed our snapper with locally grown brown rice, a coleslaw and some fried bluggo bananas from the farm.
Labels: Belize Stories, Belizean food, Main Courses, Marine Life