Baked Red Snapper...Desi Style!!

Baked Red Snapper…This was part of Sunday lunch…normally nothing tastes better than fried red snapper but this one comes pretty close…had seen the standing upright method sometime back on “Food Safari” Italian food episode and have been using it ever since…wanted to insert a coin in the mouth (fish’s mouth and not mine!!) to copy what they did but hubz threw a fit!!! The expression on the fish matched mine when he said no!!!...anyways, the original had flat leaf parsley, dried oregano, red chili flakes and olive oil but I didn't have fresh parsley so made it desi style with fresh coriander…

 Baked Red Snapper

Ingredients:

• Red Snapper, cleaned and scaled, 1 kg
• Fresh Coriander leaves and tender stems, chopped very finely, about ¼ cup
• Fresh Ginger, paste/minced/finely grated, about 2 tbsp
• Garlic, paste/minced/finely grated, 2 cloves
• Green Chilies, paste/minced, 2-3
• Juice of one lime
• Salt, to taste
• Oil, 1+ 1 tbsp

Instructions:

Wash the fish and pat dry. Make 3-4 long and deep diagonal slashes on each side of the fish.

Mix the coriander, ginger, garlic, chilies, lime juice and salt with 1 tbsp of oil in a small bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Mix a little salt with the balance 1 tbsp of oil and rub it all over the fish and keep aside for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Fill in the slashes nicely with coriander paste and any leftover gets rubbed over the fish.

Transfer the fish to a baking sheet/tray. 

To get the skin crisp on both sides – fish would need to stand upright i.e. has to be baked on its belly and not flat on its side. A couple of  crumpled foil or baking paper balls help – under the tail,head,belly.

Place the fish in the oven for about 30 minutes or so, until the flesh just flakes.

Serve with mashed potatoes, rice or on its own.