Roast snapper with mandarin and fennel sauce April 7, 2025
Fish and citrus are a no-brainer, although lemon and lime are the more usual pairings. Here, mandarins in a buttery sauce prove to be more than up to the job. Check out the original recipe here.
Ingredients:
- 2 sides pink snapper (about 450gm each), skin on, pin-boned
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
- Finely grated rind of 1 mandarin and ½ lemon, plus lemon juice to serve
- Thinly shaved fennel, to serve
Garlic mash
- 750g potatoes, such as sebago, coarsely chopped
- 200ml pouring cream
- 50g butter, diced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Mandarin and fennel sauce
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- 100ml mandarin juice
- 75ml lemon juice
- 130g chilled butter, diced
- 2 mandarins, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 lemon, segmented
- Fronds reserved from fennel bulb
Method:
-
To begin, for the garlic mash, cover the potato in a large saucepan with plenty of cold salted water. Next, bring to the boil and cook until tender (15–20 minutes). Then, drain and return to the pan to steam dry. Meanwhile, in a separate saucepan, bring cream, butter and garlic to a simmer. Once ready, add to the potato and mash until smooth. Finally, season to taste.
-
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C. While the potatoes are cooking, place the snapper skin-side down on a large roasting tray lined with baking paper. Then, drizzle with oil, scatter with mandarin and lemon rinds, and season to taste. Roast in the oven until cooked through (8–10 minutes).
-
While the snapper roasts, for the mandarin and fennel sauce, heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. First, add fennel seeds and dry-roast until fragrant (30 seconds). Then, add mandarin and lemon juice, and season to taste. Bring the mixture to the boil, then, whisking constantly, add butter a piece at a time, whisking until thick and smooth before adding the next cube. After that, add mandarin and lemon pieces and fennel fronds, and simmer to warm through.
-
Meanwhile, toss fennel in a bowl with extra olive oil and extra lemon juice to taste, and season. To serve, scatter snapper with fennel, spoon mandarin sauce on top, and serve with garlic mash.