baked snapper fillets

I've just come back from a week spearfishing on great barrier islan, where I have eaten like a king. I was aboard a yacht for a couple of days and made use of the oven in their galley by making this baked fish dish that is a bit of a crowd favorite. I sometimes do the fish whole but this one was too big for the oven, so baked fillets it was.

I hear it is manditory to post a picture of the fish, so:


This guy was scaled, then filleted with the skin on. I was lazy and left the lateral bones in.

I then place the fillet skin down on tinfoil and make a series of cuts in the flesh. thin lemon wedges and strips of capsicum are placed in these cuts:

then a sprinkling of sea salt and cracked pepper, a squirt of lemon juice over the whole lot, and wrap up and bake in the oven til it's only just done. this is a good way to do fish that is large and prone to drying out.

done:


I photographed a tasty and more interesting variation on this that I made with the other side of the fish once back home. I do a similar cutting and stuffing technique, but add another set of slices and use red onions. Then I slice up a plantain and line that around the edges. then some coconut cream goes over the top.


The coconut cream really helps it stay moist, and seems to help fish taste fresher if you've had to freeze it (or, god forbid, taken it out of a plastic packet instead of the sea), not to mention adding a great flavour.



Any way, I know that those outside of the pacific rim probably won't be able to get the fish in question, but I thought someone might be interested in the way it was prepared.

Cheers,
Kiwi

the coconut milk is a trick from the islands - maybe I should have posted this in the south pacific section? feel free to move it if you like.you aim to use just enough to keep things moist, but not enough to cause a sauce to occur!

I'm lucky - the fish, not so much  I'll try to dig up some footage of yellowtail kingfish, which we shoot a lot of around here, then get my kingie steaks recipe up.

I was really tempted by a packhorse cray about 5 minutes into day one of this trip. The bastard would have been an easy 6kg, couldn't get both hands around his tail. I was thinking "hmmm this would make a good fotw post", but ended up putting him back intact, way too much food for two of us