Snapper en croûte de sel (Snapper in Salt Crust)

Snapper in salt crust

 

The selection of this recipe for our first challenge for “The French Diaries” was done by my friend D. I don’t usually cook fish too often and was up for the challenge as the ingredients sounded like a beautiful medley of flavours.

Let me just start by saying, I didn’t expect the fish to taste as great as it did! Every mouthful was juicy, moist and delicious! It absorbed all the flavour from the parsley, golden shallots and sliced lemon stuffed within it and a perfectly balanced amount of flavour from the herbed salt crust dough. Cooking the fish well sealed within the dough left the fish flesh very moist and flaky.

This recipe is suited to any decent sized round fish, such as snapper, barramundi or black bream, cleaned with scales left on. Leaving the scales on stops the salt from the dough from infusing the flesh too much and also helps prevent the crust from sticking to the flesh. Do not consume the salt crust after cooking, this is to be discarded.

Although the recipe seems like it would be quite intimidating, it is really quite simple.

I used a red snapper about 500 gm in weight since I was cooking for one. I would allow for about 1/2 kg per person or serve – and adjust the recipe based on the fish size and required number of servings.

Please ensure fresh fish selection – with seafood. It’s generally best to cook it the same day that you purchase it. If it is not possible to cook it on the same day, please clean the fish and observe safe storage and handling and try to cook with fish within 2 days at most as this dish relies on the fish’s natural flavour.

Adapted from “French for Everyone” by Manu Feildel
(Serves 4)

Ingredients – Fish:

1 barramundi (2 Kg), snapper OR black bream (cleaned with scales left on)
15 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
3 Golden shallots, thinly sliced
1 Lemon sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (for seasoning)

Ingredients – Salt crust dough:

1 Kg Plain flour
1 Kg Coarse rock salt
2 Tbsp Thyme Leaves
1/3 cup OR 2 Tbsps Fennel seeds
650ml of water

Method:

Remove all the fish fins. If the fish is too large to fit into your oven, remove the head.

Red Snapper

Snipping off fins

Removing the dorsal fin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stuff the fish cavity with the parsley, golden shallots and lemon and season the cavity with salt and pepper. If you have a bit of time, lightly sautee these ingredients prior to stuffing the fish to get the flavours going – be sure to pour and juices that escape inside the fish cavity. Set aside.

Flat leaf parsley, Golden shallots, Lemon, Salt, Pepper

Prepped fish ingredients

Stuffing fish cavity

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preheat your oven to 220ºC. Line a baking tray or large baking pan with baking paper.

 

For the salt crust dough, mix all the ingredients a little at a time to form a pliable dough. This takes a little bit of patience. Because of the salt content, the dough can be quite delicate and form cracks/ holes easily, so be sure to handle with care, especially while rolling out.

Salt crust dough prep

Mixing the salt crust dough ingredients

One half of the salt crust dough ready to be rolled out

 

 

 

 

 

 

Divide the dough in half and roll out to form 2 even 5mm thick rectangular sheets (about 60cm x 20cm). The pieces should be 5cm larger than the fish all the way around to allow for sealing well (I rolled out the dough into an oblong shape about the shape of the fish while leaving about 3cm all around to make this and the following steps a bit easier).

Stuffed fish placed on rolled out dough on lined baking tray

Place one rectangle on the lined baking tray or large roasting pan. Carefully place the fish over this. Outline the fish on the first rolled out rectangular sheet with water. Then place the second rolled out rectangular sheet carefully over the top of the fish and seal the edges all around well by tightly sealing the fish all around.

Well sealed stuffed fish with 3cm border

 

 

Cut the dough around the fish (be careful not to damage your roasting pan OR baking tray – perhaps cut the dough on a cutting board prior to transferring the sealed fish to the lined baking dish if it makes this process easier), leaving a 3cm border on all sides.

 

 

Bake the fish at 220ºC for 40 minutes or until the crust is light golden and the fish is cooked through. Personally, I had to leave the fish in for about 50 mins as the dough on the inside felt like it wasn’t cooked through on the inside.

Fish being baked

Salt crusted fish almost ready

Cooked Salt crusted fish

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut around the edge of the top layer of crust, carefully. This process was a little hard as the salt crust hardens quite a bit, which is good news really as all the flavours and moistness would be well retained. A meat mallet might be required for this process, to break the crust.

Carefully removed and discard the skin and salt crust. The lovely flavoured fish, golden shallots and lemon is ready to serve.

Cracked open salt crusted snapper

Peeled off skin and flaky moist fish

Ready to serve!

Flesh is so moist that it flakes off so easily!

 

 

 

Please do let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think about it.