Whole Roasted Red Snapper
Feb 12th, 2009 | By Peter Minakis | Category: Bread, Fish, Greek Wine, Herbs, Olive Oil, Portuguese, Potato, Recipes, Roasting, Sauce, Sausage, Seafood, Vegetables
Before I get on with this visually stimulating and most delicious dish, I must say I’m really 
liking the feel and look of “Kalofagas Mach II”. It’s cleaner, more organized, revolving header scheme and it’s scalab, meaning that changes, tweaks and updates to the look and function of the blog are easily applied in the future.
I would like to thank the following people who took their time to assist me with my Wordpress growing pains:
Ben from What’s Cooking. Ben was the first person to offer assistance with my blog transfer to Wordpress. He has the patience of a saint and it was he who put the fire under my feet to make the move.
Mike and Tina of the Choosy Beggars. Mike and Tina are also Toronto-area bloggers and I had the pleasure of meeting, drinking and dining with them on a recent Sunday afternoon (which quickly became a Sunday evening). They offered to drop on by to get me started on building an actual new web page for Kalofagas. They helped me get through the homestretch, orient me with the inner workings of Wordpress and I in turn fed them.
Mike opted for the Lamb Ragu and Tina went the way of the Greek fisherman’s soup known as Kakavia.
Finally, Lori of Recipe Girl also just revamped her blog and she recommended that I contact a Tommy Vallier…a Wordpress hack who actually enjoys this stuff so much he’s made a career out of it (sounds like my guy). Tommy was easy to work with, we communicated via ‘instant messenger’ and Skype to exchange ideas, tweak the new blog and ultimately unveil “Kalofagas Mach II”.
Tommy lives in Kingston, Ontario (which is about 2.5 hrs. east of Toronto), I found him very easy to work with, explains matters free of computer jargon, was a pleasant fellow to deal with, quick results, definitive results. If you’re ready to make your move to Wordpress, I highly recommend Tommy Vallier as he’s very knowledgeable, quick results, patient, good fee structure and he’s also a Canadian dude!
For the next little while, you’ll see some tweaking of the blog
here and there. The next big step is to add my “blogs of note” friends back into my links. Once again, I invite those who are my friends or frequent visitors to my blog to notify me if they would like to be added to these links.
I promise not to talk about computers for a long time, this is a food blog – this is what I’m here for and what you’re here for…FOOD!
Today’s dish came to my dashboard courtesy of a food friend but I only recall that it was from a female. The person had bookedmarked this dish for trying out, sent me the link and I immediately bookmarked the dish too!
Even looking into the roasting pan full of the raw ingredients made me hungry. I loved that this dish was easy, most of the prep can be done while the oven is pre-heating and your biggest challenges would be to find some fresh red snapper and some Portuguese linguica sausage. Living in Toronto, we are blessed with having quality ingredients and just about every (and any) ethnic ingredient you can think of.
This was my first time buying and trying out linguica and I found it to have a similar taste to Spanish Chorizo. It posesses that smoky paprika flavour, it’s a little dryer and leaner than Chorizo and the meat’s consistency reminded me a bit of a good Kielbasa.
Finding a fresh fish is also a must here. As always, I recommend buying whole fish. Even if you’re going to have it filleted, at least you will be able to inspect and ensure you’re buying the freshest catch of the day. If you can’t find red snapper, other snappers work fine, a sea bass or bream would work in a pinch.
Red snapper works well here because of it’s red colour, it’s delicate white meat and because red snapper comes in various sizes so, choose the size of fish according to how many people you need to serve. The recipe says “serves 6″ but realistically for a Greek appetite, this serves 4.
This whole roasted snapper is one the tastiest and visually appealing dishes I’ve made in awhile. It incorporates seafood with pork (one complements the other), contains fennel (anise flavour works wonderfully with seafood), there’s that Portuguese linguica, a large handful of clams and wine, herbs and lemon wedges to finish off the dish to make a wonderful broth fit only for dunking with some crusty, homemade artisan bread.
Save, bookmark, print this recipe NOW! This dish is suitable to feed your family or spectacular for serving dinner guests. Another chorus of “Oooohs and Ahhh’s” will be heard from the dining room. This recipe finally made me subscribe to Saveur.
I followed the recipe verbatim except for the use of olives. Although I adore olives, my senses were telling me, “not this time”. Instead, I substituted them with cherry tomatoes and the added some more colour and freshness to the meal.
For those looking for a wine pairing…I cracked open a bottle of Skouras Cuvee Prestige white.
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looks like a fitting dish for your house warming party – or would that be for your site warming party? I am glad that I’ll be able to continue reading your colorful posts, and trying some of your recipes.
On a different note, what would you do with 8 pound of feta? (A gift…)
Whew! That was a long journey. Love what you’ve done with the place. It’s beautiful! Thanks, Peter, for adding me to your link list. Very kind of you.
The dish looks like a festa! So colorful and I’m sure it’s delicious.
Enjoy your new home. It’s so..you!
Maryann xox
The new site looks great! And what a gorgeous fish….
Peter, congrats on a beautiful new design! I love the layout a lot. Wordpress rocks. It takes time to get used to things there, but with time, you begin to like it:)
Ohh, I love red snapper. it is such a delicious fish.
BTW, I made your Kourkouto and posted about it on my blog. Thank you for the recipe.
Your fish dish photos are beautiful, Peter, as is the new blog look. I especially love the changing header photos. Good job!
I hope I will continue to be one of your blogs of note.
I love the new look of your blog!
a deceased fish never looked so attractive than with lemon slices sticking out all over it.
Hello my Greek friend, I hope you add me back on your blog list:)) Hope you had a Happy valentines day!!
I love the new look. congrats. and di did u ever stop the guy jacking your pics!
So a friend of mine is over here looking at this post and is like can u plllease make that for me. He’s red snapper eatin’ fool!
I just got a recipe to Saveur–so excited about it! Whole fish always kind of terrifies me, but this just looks too good to miss. Great new design, btw!
Anything red snapper is visually stimulating, I love it. The lemon wedges create some nice contrast. Oh, since red and green are opposites on the color wheel, lime and red snapper would pop better. I wonder how it would taste? Are limes used in Greek cuisine?
Peko
Gosh!!!..colorful dish and pic’s.
Snapper is my favourite fish,I love greek food.I must try….
Thanks peter.