Fast Cooked Snapper with Autumn Vegetables - Chef Recipe by Russell Jeavons

Ingredients

1 whole baby snapper, gutted
Sea salt
1 zucchini roughly chopped
1 small eggplant (aubergine), roughly chopped
4 french shallots, roughly chopped
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes
2 mild red chillies, roughly chopped
2 tsp of salted capers, rinsed and squeezed dry
Pinch of saffron threads
Splash of white wine
Splash of olive oil
Freshly cracked black pepper
Watercress to garnish
Squeeze of lime juice to taste

Method

Three hours before cooking, light the fire to one side of your oven.

Two hours before cooking, using a sharp knife make 3 shallow cuts through the flesh on both sides of the fish to help it cook evenly, rub in sea salt (using the same amount that you’d normally season with), stand the fish up in a heavy cast-iron pan, add the chopped vegetables to the pan with some chilies, capers, saffron, white wine, olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper.

In your already hot wood-fired oven, throw in some kindling to flare the fire.

Bake the fish and vegetables in the hot oven for about 5 minutes, checking that the fish is crisping up and the vegetables are sizzling.

Once the fish is cooked through and out of the oven, garnish with watercress and a squeeze of lime to taste, and serve in the pan.

Equipment

Wood fired oven.

Credits: This is an edited extract from Food Safari Fire by Maeve O’Meara published by Hardie Grant RRP $55 available in stores nationally.

Photo Credits: This is an edited extract from Food Safari Fire by Maeve O’Meara published by Hardie Grant RRP $55 available in stores nationally.