Red Snapper never looks like a happy camper. The downturned mouth is what does it I think. Of course, I wouldn’t either if I had been stuffed with fennel and herbs, and had slits cut in my sides. I hadn’t grilled a whole fish for a while, but always considered it a treat on a summers day. The snapper here is stuffed with fennel, basil, parsley, some olive oil, and salt and pepper. A few diagonal slits are cut in it’s sides, where more of the herbs and seasonings are pushed in. More olive oil all over, and this poor chap is ready to go!
It is the norm in England, and the rest of Europe pretty much to serve whole fish. You don’t often get a tidy little fillet (in England we pronounce it fillet not fillay as you do here) of fish. Certainly at more local or rustic places a whole fish is norm, generally with the head and tail still on. The funny thing is, I hardly ever see it on the menu over here. There is something great about having a whole fish popped on a plate, and you remove the juicy flesh from the bone, head and tail. Shame, more places should it. I know a lot of people get freaked out seeing the fish staring back at you, but we shouldn’t be so sanitized in our eating.
A few minutes per side on a really hot BBQ saw this chap done. To stop a fish from sticking on the BBQ, I have found it is best to brush the grill with an oil soaked paper towel (your cheapest olive oil will do the job) just a few seconds before you put the fish on. Oh, and remember to start with a really clean grill too.
The fennel, herbs and oil gave this a real aromatic flavor. The fish was perfect, incredibly succulent, fragrant, and just falling off the bone. The pictures here really don’t do the fish justice!
On to the amazing napa cabbage salad. This one isn’t my invention I am afraid. This comes straight out of the brilliant “Italian two Easy” cookbook by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, of the London River Cafe. This book is an absolute pleasure. I think I have read most of their cookbooks, and every single one is really amazing. This is the only one I own, but I have cooked from most of the books they have written. I have to say that I have never had bad food from their books. Especially this one. What is fantastic here is that all of the recipes in Italian two Easy are bloody simple. No complicated cooking processes, just simple ingredients prepared to show off their true flavor and versatility. This to me is the essence of Italian cooking. Word of warning though.. you really do get out what you put in here. Only the highest quality ingredients should be used for all the recipes, otherwise they taste.. er… well, just not right. The focus is on the food itself, rather than cooking techniques, so if you use unripe tomatoes from the south of nowhere, that have been shipped green 2000 miles to you, and gassed to turn red.. Well, you can guess what you are going to get out…. Nothing bad, just nothing really amazingly good. You can check out their book here: http://www.amazon.com/Italian-Two-Easy-Simple-Recipes/dp/0307338355 I recommend this, and all their others very highly indeed. Oh, and the plum bruschetta dessert recipe is amazing!
Anyhow, that isn’t talking much about this great cabbage dish. It is dead simple. Just a quick dressing of olive oil and red wine vinegar, whisked together and seasoned. The napa is sliced really thinly, and tossed with the dressing. Throw in a handful of drained and rinsed capers, and a good handful of chopped parsley. A little more salt and pepper, and job done. Sounds too simple to be good, but bloody hell, it was incredible. I think I am going to start making this almost every week. The photo I took of this could look more appealing for sure.. but in all honesty, I just wanted to eat it, it looked that good. I am definitely going to start cooking more things from this book.
So that was it. Another great dinner. I am lucky. Truly lucky to be able to spend the time to get good ingredients, and to cook in the evenings. I really have to thank Danika for that. She looks after Drake whilst I get dinner ready. Hopefully by the time I am done, he is pretty much asleep, and we get a great evening together. Cheers to summer days!
