Creative Caribbean recipes

Oven Baked Red Snapper with a Tomato & Chilli Pepper Sauce

Red Snapper is a popular fish in the Caribbean. This is a typical recipe but it is also delicious stuffed with callaloo/spinach or steamed in the tomato sauce accompanying this recipe or curried.

2-3lbs Snapper, gutted and scaled
with head and tail left on
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon crushed thyme
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 bay leaf, crushes
ground blackpepper

Rub the cleaned fish inside and out with salt and ground black pepper. Cut gashes on one side of the fish. Put into a greased baking pan with the cut side facing up. Pour the olive oil over the fish and sprinkle the crushed herbs into the cuts and in the belly of the fish. Pour over the lemon juice. Bake in a hot oven at 350F, 180 C for about 20-25 minutes basting occasionally or until the skin is crisp and the flesh just flaky.

When the fish is done, transfer to a warm plate. Now make the sauce with the juices from the pan. I may be necessary to add a little water to the pan.


Tomato and Chilli Pepper Sauce

There are many versions of this sauce varying in name and the amount of peppers used.

1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes diced or a small tin of chopped tomatoes
1 garlic clove, crushed
olive oil for frying
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh green chilli pepper
pinch of salt
6 pimento berried, optional

Saute the onion and garlic together gently in the olive oil and then add the chopped tomatoes, peppers and pimento berries. Mix all the ingredients together with the liquid from the fish pan and bring to a boil. Add more water if necessary. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Pour over the fish and serve.