I love surprises- Part II.

by Tokyo Terrace on May 28, 2009

Warning: For those of you who grew attached to Doug, the red snapper, after my last post, you may want to brace yourselves. This may be disturbing.

No, you are not imagining things. Doug is, in fact, on a plate ready to be eaten.

After my jolting experience attempting to clean my own fish the other day, Brad came to my rescue and did the dirty work for me. Finally, I could make the whole red snapper I’d been dreaming about for months!

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I contemplated how to prepare Doug. Doug was a special fish. We’d been through so much and he deserved a dignified preparation/farewell.

My conclusion was to infuse him with ginger and steam him. Ah yes. But first, I needed to marinade him in something tasty. Ginger, garlic, peanut oil, vegetable oil, lemon juice, black pepper and a dash of tabasco sauce. Oh yes.

After the marinating and steaming, I threw together a little spicy garlic aioli to top him off. I sort of cheated with the aioli and used mayonnaise. It was so much faster this way and tasted pretty darn good, too!

Somehow, the trying experience Doug and I suffered through the first time around seemed worth it. I had watched Brad do “the deed” (you know, the whole guts thing) this morning, so I knew exactly what happened to bring this delicious fish to my plate. Well, at least from the time I bought it at the grocery store. I can only assume how he made it from the ocean to the fish counter…

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The point is, Doug fulfilled his life’s journey of ending up in my stomach. Sad but true. And delicious.

RIP Doug.

Ginger Steamed Whole Red Snapper Spicy Garlic Aioli

1 whole red snapper, cleaned and scaled (any size will do as long as it fits into your steamer- I used one that was around 1lb)

3 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into 1/4″ rounds

1 inch piece of ginger, cut in half

1 garlic clove, chopped

sea salt

lemon juice

Marinade

2 T peanut oil

1/3 cup vegetable oil

juice from 1 lemon

2 T ginger, peeled and chopped

dash of Tabasco sauce

2 teaspoons black pepper

Spicy Garlic Aioli

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Slice three slits in each side of the fish. Sprinkle the cavity with sea salt. Insert the ginger rounds into the slits and cavity of the fish. Stuff the cavity with the chopped garlic. Place in a shallow bowl and squeeze lemon juice over the top.

Mix the ingredients for the marinade in a small bowl. Whisk until well combined and pour over the fish. Place the fish in the refrigerator and allow to marinade for 10 minutes. Turn the fish and marinade for 10 more minutes.

While the fish is marinading, boil the water for the steamer. When the water begins to simmer, add the ginger halves and continue until the water reaches a boil. Insert the steamer.

Lift the fish out of the marinade and carefully place it in the steamer. Steam, covered, for 10 minutes (or more depending on the size of the fish). Gently place the fish on a plate. Top with the aioli and some flat leaf parsley or cilantro leaves. Enjoy!

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  • oysterculture

    Doug we barely knew thee. Great follow up and a fitting tribute. The recipe looks delicious!

  • Rachel F.

    Thanks for covering his eye with some parsley. :)

  • http://thesophisticatedgourmet.blogspot.com/ Kamran Siddiqi (The Sophisticated Gourmet)

    Sorry Doug… You had to be eaten sooner or later. Anyway, putting that aside; I have to say this looks excellent. I am not much of a seafood person, but when I do eat seafood, It has to be prepared a certain way, and it has to look good. It can’t look like a piece of fish with stuff… You, my dear friend have now compelled me to head down to our local fish monger to get a snapper, just so I can make this recipe. This looks phenomenal!
    Great job!

    -Kamran

  • tokyoterrace

    Thanks! It was delicious…

    oh Doug…

  • tokyoterrace

    That’s funny you noticed that because I totally did it on purpose!

  • http://www.sweetsfoods.com/ Gera @ SweetsFoods

    The Doug worth its journey ;) the recipe looks awesome Rachael! Today it is a tasty spicy memory…

    Cheers!

    Gera

  • http://thewhitesintokyo.blogspot.com/ Bradley

    And what did I get for putting Doug through all that?

    Not one bite…just mouth-watering photos.

    I think we’ll have to make this again. Do you think Doug has any friends?

  • http://livetheblife.com Kori (All Things B.)

    Yikes- cleaning your own fish is pretty hardcore! I leave that to the people at the fish counter at Whole Foods! I love to eat it, but don’t have the stomach to clean it!

  • http://www.lafujimama.com Fuji Mama

    Ha, ha, ha, great post and beautiful pictures! We just had snapper for dinner this past Sunday (but just had filets…so jealous you had a whole fish)!

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