Red snapper is easily the Gulf Coast’s favorite summer eating fish. It’s great tasting, and fun to fish for. Admittedly, you sometimes need a slide rule and a fishing consultant to figure out the red snapper season around here, let alone catch some. Redfish–aka red drum, and a different fish entirely–is a great substitute. (And so you know, redfish really aren’t all that red.)
Anyway, Snapper (or Redfish) Veracruz is a pretty and flavorful dish. It comes to us from Veracruz, the historic Mexican port on the western coast of the Gulf. It’s easy to make, yet rarely seen in the U.S. outside of fancy Gulf Coast restaurants. The version below is a bit streamlined without sacrificing the flavors of traditional recipes. For example, you may notice that this recipe doesn’t call for jalapenos, neither pickled nor fresh. I think the sauce has quite enough tanginess going on without pickled jalapenos, what with the tomatoes, capers, olives, and lime juice. Any fresh jalapeno pepper flavor is overpowered by those same ingredients, leaving only the heat. So I figure why not just use crushed red pepper flakes rather than cutting up something that’s going to ruin my contact lenses later? (I know I could wear gloves to dice jalapenos, but first I would have to find clean gloves, right? Meh. Life is short.) Feel free to substitute jalapenos of any kind if you’d prefer.
If you need to use up some fresh tomatoes, by all means do that! Peel and de-seed about three pounds of them, then roast on a sheet pan at 425° until the tomato volume is reduced by a third or so. Pick up the recipe from there. It will be great, and only a little more time-consuming. You can make this sauce a couple of days ahead if you like. I like Snapper Veracruz served with yellow rice. If I’m not using yellow rice, I add a pinch of saffron and a teaspoon of turmeric to the rice cooking water along with some salt and a tablespoon of butter. Basmati rice is actually our family favorite, though not even remotely authentic.
PRO TIP: If you have a little leftover rice and a little leftover sauce, combine them and serve as a side dish to roast or grilled shrimp or chicken later in the week. ¡Buen apetito!
Snapper Veracruz
Ingredients
- 2 T extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green part
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
- 1 14 oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 T fresh parsley, chopped, divided
- 1 t dried oregano
- ⅓ cup sliced Spanish olives with pimentos
- 2 T raisins–white, if you have them
- 2 T capers
- ½ t dried pepper flakes, or more to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Juice of one lime
- 4 6 oz snapper filets (or other mild white fish)
- Hot rice for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Sauté the scallions in olive oil over medium heat until wilted. Add garlic and cook only a minute, stirring. Stir in the wine and cook for another minute or so. Add crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, bay leaves, 2 T. parsley, oregano. When this mixture is bubbling, allow to simmer for about 5 minutes. Add olives, raisins, capers, and simmer for another few minutes until the raisins are softening. Add pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste if needed. When you get it to your liking, turn the heat down to low. If it gets too dry, add some of the reserved tomato juice.
- In a baking dish large enough to hold the fish, ladle ⅓ to ½ cup of sauce. Lay the filets on top of the sauce. Drizzle the filets with olive oil and squeeze the lime juice over the fish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork. See NOTE.
- Serve with hot rice, and topped with the rest of the sauce. Garnish with parsley.
Notes
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