Mediterranean Roasted Red Snapper with Sauteed Veggies #FishFridayFoodies

I often go back to the land where I was born at, in my thoughts. It is hard to be away from Dubai, UAE as there are so many fond memories of the place. Growing up, we lived in a place very close to the first fish market. Seafood has always been at home as long as I can remember at least for lunch.

Mummy made the best roast /grilled fish too. Since Dad has not had spicy food in decades now owing to his health, Arabic/Mediterranean food seems to be the best choice! And nothing like having Fish grilled or roasted which brings out its natural flavours and does not need much oil owing to its natural oils. I miss Mum's cooking a lot these days. The image below is of a post card I had since college days. Well I used to miss her cooking back then too when we stayed away from home.

This fish was grilled when my Papa (Hubby's Dad) came to stay. He has been unwell since last year and has a lot of diet restrictions, so I thought it best to make this fish roasted. He thoroughly enjoyed this fish and make. What's best is it was devoid of any oil and used a lot of good, healthy ingredients. The Red Snapper in itself is quite a flavoursome fish. You can add other vegetables too but like I said he has many restrictions on the type of vegetables too. Suggest adding some whole shallots and tomatoes with slits on either side. Ironically though my recipe is titled as with Sauteed Veggies, it really does only give the look of being sauteed as that is how it cooked when roasted with the fish.

Red Snapper can be cooked in many ways. Rich in Selenium, Vitamin A, Omega-3, it can be baked, broiled, poached, grilled, sauteed or steamed.

I am a fan of one pot or pan cooking. So it was neat to have the veggies cooked atop the fish. Although I had to do a bit of flash cooking prior to placing the beans on the baking pan.

April's Fish Friday Foodies is hosted by the lovely Camilla M. Mann of Culinary Adventures with Camilla. Thank you Camilla for this awesome theme.

You need:

• 1.5 kgs Red Snapper
• 4-5 cloves of Garlic
• 2 tbsp of crushed black pepper
• 250 gms of French beans
• Sprinkle of Salt
• 1/2 medium sized lemon (Preferable, but I had to leave it out owing to Papa's diet restrictions) or 1 tbsp of vinegar
• 1 large shallot, diced or cut finely

The Make:
Preparation time: 10 minutes | Marination time: 20 minutes to an hour | Cooking Time: 30 minutes | Serves 4 adults


1. Slit the sides of the Red Snapper and sprinkle some salt and rub down on both sides with the black pepper and vinegar (or lemon juice).
2. Crush the garlic using the back of a knife and press down. Place it in the cavity of the fish and around it as well. Allow it to stand for 20 minutes to an hour.
3. Line a baking pan with butter paper/foil or lightly grease the pan. Heat water and add a sprinkle of salt and bring to a boil. Add the cleaned French beans and shallots to the boiling water and  cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and place the beans in an ice bath or chilled water.
4. Place the fish over the pan and add the beans and shallots on top. Loosely cover the fish with the edges of the butter paper or foil or you can even leave it open.
5. Heat the oven to 180°C and place the fish in the oven. Roast for at least 20 minutes to an hour.

Serve hot with kuboos / pita bread or any of your favourite flat bread and garlic paste or sauce.

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies?  We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month.  To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517@gmail.com.

And now for some of the lovely, healthy Whole Fish Recipes by our awesome #FishFridayFoodies from around the world:

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Roast Chicken with Spinach stuffing - A Boxing Day Special

Yes I know the last thing you want to hear right now is Roast or anything remotely close to it. So then why am I posting this recipe now. Well it is because I know many of you either had a festive Christmas meal(s) and may not even know what Boxing Day is all about. However there are many others globally who enjoy a public holiday on December 26th, i.e. the day after Christmas and traditionally celebrate Boxing Day. 

So what is Boxing Day - the simple explanation as per modern day practices is a day when all the leftovers of Christmas Day is shared. It may also be a day when those friends or relatives you haven't celebrated and shared the meals of Christmas Day comes over for a meal or two or more. 

After a festive meal or even a Christmas party, it may be that you do not have any leftovers to share, so hence the Roast recipe I am about to share with you. This roast has a healthy element in terms of its stuffing and is no problem at all to cook up as it has a simple marinade and does not require much of visits to stores (which I am sure your feet probably would not allow you to do). 

No need for any close monitoring either. Just pop it into the oven and it is ready to hold center place on your Boxing Day table along with any leftovers or sides. 

Some interesting learning of the origin of Boxing Day can be learnt here.

The marinade is learnt from my darling Mummy and in fact she was with me in Chennai (visiting us in February 2015) when I cooked this last roast with her.

On with the recipe...

What you need:

• 1500 gms of chicken (skin-on), cleaned well
• 2 fairly large bunches of spinach, chopped roughly
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 tbsp
• 1 heaped tbsp of Chili powder
• 1 heaped tbsp of Garam Masala
• 1 tbsp salt
• Water to combine the marinade
• Olive oil

The Make:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes | Marination time: 30 minutes to 2 hours | 

1. Slit the chicken skin across the breast, legs and wings. Make a marinade of the ginger-garlic paste, Chili powder, Garam masala and salt. Rub generously all over the chicken and within the cavity as well. Set aside for 30 minutes up to 2 hours minimum.

2. Meanwhile in a large wok, drizzle some olive oil, saute some onions until lightly brown and then add the spinach leaves. Cook until the residual water disappears or up to 5 minutes. Set aside.

3. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

4. Next stuff the cavity of the chicken and all around the roast with spinach leaves and place on a roasting tray. Loosely cover the chicken with foil paper. Roast for 45 minutes to an hour.

Serve hot with your Christmas day leftovers and sides.

Mediterranean style Roasted Chicken with Garlic basted Roasted veggies

For a new twist to your traditional Christmas home roast, why not try a Mediterranean one.

Living and working in the Middle East esp. the cosmopolitan Dubai, you get to meet a whole lot of people from all over the world.

I have a fair share of friends from all over the Middle East. Learning their cultural cuisines was one of my favourite learning. So I did get a lot of recipes and tips from them.

This one is for the adventurous YOU who just doesn't want a traditional Christmas roast but exploring each year and wow-ing your guests and loved ones each time.

What you need:

For the Marinade

• 1 lemon
• 1 cup of Tomato paste or puree 
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1/2 tbsp coriander powder (freshly powdered from coriander seeds)
• A mix of herbs such as Marjoram,Oregano,Sumac,Thyme and Rosemary
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder (freshly powdered from cumin seeds)
• 1 tbsp Salt

Other ingredients:

• Whole spices such as Bayleaf, Cinnamon, cloves
• 5-6 Garlic cloves - crushed
• 4-5 medium sized potatoes (skin-on), cleaned well
• 1200 gms chicken (skin-on)
• Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
• Shallots/Onions, chopped

The Make:

Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Roasting Time: 1-1 hr and 20 minutes

1.Boil the potatoes with a few stabs in between (no need to cut them now) until half boiled. You can added carrots or other veggies too if you like.

2.Slit the chicken on all sides esp. legs taking care not to cut too much into the meat. On a non-stick roasting pan, add 2 tbsp EVOO, and brown the chicken on all sides, esp the legs as they take longer to cook.

3.Then wait for the chicken to cool down a bit and then add the whole spices in the roasting pan around the chicken. Also place the shallots around in the pan. Rub the marinade well on the chicken and in the cavity and into the slits made earlier.

4. Boil a lemon whole for 5-10 minutes. The larger lemons (not available here) need 10 minutes. Next stab in a couple of times around the lemon and stuff it into the cavity of the chook.

5. Toss in the boiled potatoes cut in quarters.

6. Roast chicken on wire rack (optionally) with the same roasting pan below at 150°C for an hour and then up to 20 minutes on 180°C breast side facing down until the skin is nicely crisp.

7. Meanwhile, to prep the roasted potatoes crush 5-6 cloves of garlic using a mortar and pestle (you can also use an electric grinder) add a little EVOO and further crush to a creamy garlic paste.

8. Add a dash of salt and marinade chopped tomatoes with the creamy paste. When the chook is ready, place the potatoes on a serving dish, pour the garlic paste with tomatoes and some of the juices from the roasting pan.

9. Add some lemon juice from the lemon from the chook's cavity and toss well.

Serve the roasted potatoes on the side of the chicken with some hummus and white rice if you need.

Bon Appetit! Hope you liked our Mediterranean style Christmas Chicken roast!

Try G'Gina's Kitchenette's Hummus recipe here

Crispy Roast Duck with Sticky, Sweet n Spicy Glaze

As promised, I am back with another Roast for your big Christmas meal. With Christmas around the corner, schools too are gearing up towards their Track Events(Sports Meet), Christmas celebrations, Carolling, etc. And this just means Mama has to be on her toes.

My little girl had a successful track event yesterday where she bagged a prize 'medal' in the school track event. So hence the delay in posting this roast recipe. I am going to try and get you as many roast recipes before Christmas week hopefully if all goes well on the home front.

This recipe was created after reviewing several recipes. It took a while but the resultant Roast Duck was flavoursome and fabulous and was out of some sheer experimentation. Yes this time too I tried for a Jamie Oliver recipe. In fact I saw far too many including Jamie's many duck recipes and then settled to take some tips from Jamie and have a twist of my own based on my Chicken roast success to have a crispy, succulent duck roast. It helps to experiment in the kitchen before hand so you come up with some unexpected savoury/sweet sauces.

It pleasantly surprised me to see such a proud and pretty duck roast coming out of my oven.

Without taking up more time, let me give you the recipe..

You need:

For the duck:

• 1.7 kgs duck, cleaned well-free of quills and dressed (skin-on)
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp of five-spice powder (or if you do not have this: mixture of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, pepper and fennel seeds)
• 1 medium sized orange
• 2-3 bay leaves

For the glaze:

• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1/8 cup of honey
• 1/8 cup molasses or palm jaggery
• 2 tbsp of orange juice
• 1 tbsp of your choice of chili sauce (optional)

The Make:
Preparation Time:10 minutes |  Roasting Time: up to 4 hrs, 17 minutes | Serves:5-6 adults

1. Make sure your well-cleaned duck is patted dry. Then with a kitchen blade or the tip of your sharp kitchen knife, make criss-crosses on the skin of the duck (try the diamond pattern), taking care not to delve into the meat of the duck.This will ensure that the fat escapes through the cuts created on the skin and the more the fat escapes, the more crispier the duck skin would turn.
2. Rub the salt, black pepper and five spice on the duck. Cut the orange in quarters and stuff it in the cavity of the duck along with the bay leaves. Truss the legs crossed with a kitchen twine or butcher's twine. Tuck the wings under the duck.
3. Set the oven to 150°C and set the duck on a wire rack with a roasting pan below to hold the glorious duck fat. Roast the duck for an hour. When 1 hour is done, take it out and poke the skin of the duck especially the legs which has more fat content, taking care not to hit the meat.
4. Flip the bird carefully on its breast facing downwards. Cook for another hour at 150°C.
5. Repeat step 3 and 4 once more on 150°C. At the fourth hour, prepare the glaze.
6. After the fourth hour, tip the fat off the roasting tray into a storing jar. You need to do this now to ensure that the glaze does not get into the fat.
7.Next turn breast side up, poke, flip and roast at 200°C for 10 minutes. This is to allow for some extra crisping up.
8. Brush with the glaze and roast at 200°C for another 5-7 minutes. Keep a close eye on it to avoid burning.
9. Rest for about 10 minutes, carve and serve hot.

Sticky, Sweet and Spicy Glaze:
1. In a wok, take all of the ingredients required for the glaze and mix well on simmer.
2. Once the glaze thickens over the flame, turn off and use the glaze to coat the duck with a oil brush.

Bon Appetit! I served the Duck with my Easy make Dinner bread rolls and Crunchy Rosemary and Honey Soda bread.

Note/Tip:
1. Any excess skin can be cut off and trimmed and used to render and reserve the duck fat. Try not to take off too much of the excess skin which can be used to keep the duck moist.
2. Flipping the bird on to the breast will ensure that the breast remains soft as the juices flow to the center.
3. In case the glaze turns cools down and becomes too thick to coat the duck, then slightly heat up on the stove and it will liquify right away.

Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken

I am baaaack. Didn't expect me so soon did you :)? Well I am here and this time again with another super simple recipe.

Although I specify two herbs, you can add more or different herbs as well. I tried this combination and I have to say I am quite inspired with this experiment.

This chicken borrows more of a Mediterranean flavour. Herbes de Provence, a mixture of several dried herbs such as thyme, oregano, rosemary, marjoram and savoury, is typical of the Provence region of South East France. Oregano is common in the Mediterranean region.

You need:

• 1.2 kgs of whole chicken with skin on, washed and cleaned well
• Salt to taste
• Half a shake of Herbes de Provence
• A good shake of Oregano
• 1 tbsp Pepper powder
• A drizzle of olive oil
• 1/2 a lemon
• 2 drops of clove oil (you just have about 3-4 cloves sitting in some warm oil for about half a day, strain and use) - optional *

* You can also use biriyani oil in case available.

The Make:
Preparation time: 10 minutes | Roast time: 1 hour | Resting time: 10 minutes | Serves 3-4 adults

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Form slits all around the chicken with a sharp knife edge and allow the cleaned chicken to drain in a colander.
2. In a bowl, mix the herbs, pepper, olive oil and salt to taste.
3, Rub into the chicken well, taking care to tuck in some of the spice rub into the slits on the chicken and some in the cavity as well.
4. Squeeze the lemon juice over the spice rub and massage the chicken once more.
5. In a large roasting pan, lay the spice rubbed chicken carefully and pop it into the oven.
6. Roast until golden brown on top and the chicken is cooked well for about an hour.
7. Rest in the oven for about five minutes and then remove from the oven and rest for five more minutes.

Serve hot with a side of your favourite salad and choice of bread.

Bon Appetit! My little one loved this chicken make as well (PS for those of you who do not know - my little one is my biggest critic ever! :) )

Mummy's Roasted Chicken with a twist

Mummy's Roasted Chicken has always been my personal favourite. Although initially when I made this at home 'A' would not like it at all as it would not get roasted properly or would turn out dry. I realise that I should have placed a foil covering the chicken as well as my cooking range was as old as I was and had lost it full capacity. However this cooking range has been a prized possession and has seen us through some great dinner parties and feasts at home. I finally gave in and 'A' bought me a brand new cooking range on my birthday. I have tried a different type of Chicken Roast recently which I will post very soon.

Roasted Chicken

I am posting this for a dear friend Savina Gois who plans on roasting one of my variants of roast chicken (with BBQ Sauce and Pepper marinade) for her loved ones this weekend. Hope to receive her pictures soon so as to share them with you.

Mum usually makes hers with Red Chili Powder, all spice (Indian) powder (Garam Masala), Salt and Lemon juice. I added a few new variants and it turned out good. In fact, 'A' particularly enjoyed this one as it turned out to be nice and juicy and well-done. The one thing that I missed was to take pictures of the chicken once cut. It was quite late into the night and we were really hungry. Hope to get you shots of this the next time the Chicken visits my oven :)

You need:

• 1 kg whole Fresh Chicken (Skin-on) or Frozen Chicken (Skin on) *You can take out the skin later, it is just to retain the juiciness of the chicken during the cooking process. My vendor did not provide the Fresh Chicken with skin on, so I had to source a new vendor.
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/2 cup of mustard (I used my Homemade variety of mustard)
• 2 tbsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp of paprika
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp of rock salt or kosher salt
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp of butter or oil

Method:

Cooking Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour | Preparation Time: 20 minutes | Serves 4-6 adults

1. Clean the chicken and with your knife make short cuts in the thighs, wings, breast and back of the chicken. 
2. In a bowl mix the pepper, garlic paste, paprika, salt, honey and mustard. Marinate the chicken with the mixed ingredients and allow it to rest for at least 2 hours. You can leave it longer.
3. For the Apple Cider, you could also add it to the marinade mix. However I did not want the apple cider to overpower the other ingredients, so what I did was during the cooking process, I inserted a sachet made of foil containing the vinegar in the chicken so the vinegar could slowly release during the cooking process. The sachet had a tiny opening about the size of a mustard seed. 
4. Line a baking tray with foil and dab some butter or oil on the base. Carefully place the chicken onto the tray. If your oven does not have upper heating, then cover with a foil (no need to tuck the sides into the tray).
5. Preheat the oven on a high (about 250◦C) for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to medium (about 215◦C) and place the chicken into the oven and leave it to cook for 40-45 minutes.

6. 

   Marinated chicken flipped over

   

   Marinated Chicken on its back

   Remember I mentioned that I had not covered the chicken with foil, so I had to physically flip the chicken over. Always lower the heat if you attempt to do something like this. You can flip the chicken over after the first 25 minutes. Do not forget to turn the heat back up after flipping it over.
7. Once the 45 minutes is up, use a skewer to check if the chicken is cooked well. If not leave it on for another 10-15 minutes.  Dress with lemon juice or leave it on the side in case of those who do not prefer it with lemon juice. You can also try it with my Homemade BBQ Sauce. This is not a very spicy dish, so kids love it!
8. Serve with some warm bread or pita bread or flavoured rice. You can also set up a nice side salad. I will have some tried and successful salad recipes to follow shortly. Bon Appetit! I assure you that your loved one with thank you for this meal.

Oven BBQ Chicken

This was a dish I first made all of 18 yrs ago and was a hit at home then. I am glad to see both 'A' and Izzy love it as much if not more. We even fought over a share of it. I especially loved Izzy's reaction to the chicken..."Mama...(slurp) yummmie"...even as it was being barbecued.

BBQ Chicken served up!

You need:

• 1 kg of boneless or boned chicken cut into small cubes or medium pieces
• 1 tbsp cayenne powder or paprika powder
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 2 cloves crushed garlic (optional)
• 1 sprig of cilantro or coriander leaves finely diced (optional)
• The BBQ Sauce

The Make:

Cooking time: 45 minutes | Preparation Time: 10 minutes | Serves 4-6 adults

• Marinate the cleaned and cut pieces of chicken in salt, pepper and garlic for about an hour or more.

Marinated chicken laid on foiled tray

• For the BBQ sauce, click here
• Heat the oven for about 10 minutes on high (245°C).



First layer of sauce added

• Line a flat baking tray (I use the one that comes with the oven) with foil and drizzle some EVOO.
• Lower the heat to medium and place the marinated chicken and add 1/4 of the sauce on the foiled tray in the oven.

• After about 20 minutes, turn the chicken on the other side and add another 1/4 of the sauce. Add the last 1/4 in the last 10 minutes of the 40-45 minutes.
• Take a butter knife and check if the chicken is cooked by trying to cut through one of the pieces. Turn off the flame and allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the oven.
• Take out the chicken pieces in a serving bowl and garnish with the onion rings and cilantro (optional).

BBQ Chicken

BBQ Chicken