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.
Roast snapper with mandarin and fennel sauce
Roast snapper with mandarin and fennel sauce recipe - For the garlic mash, cover the potato in a large saucepan with plenty of cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook until tender (15-20 minutes).
- 20 mins preparation
- 25 mins cooking
- Serves 4
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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
- 750 gm floury potatoes, such as sebago, coarsely chopped
- 200 ml pouring cream
- 50 gm butter, diced
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Mandarin and fennel sauce
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- 100 ml mandarin juice
- 75 ml lemon juice
- 130 gm chilled butter, diced
- 2 mandarins, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 lemon, segmented
- Fronds reserved from fennel bulb
Method
Main
- 1For the garlic mash, cover the potato in a large saucepan with plenty of cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook until tender (15-20 minutes). Drain and return to pan to steam dry. In a separate saucepan, bring cream, butter and garlic to a simmer, then add to potato and mash until smooth. Season to taste.
- 2Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200C. Place snapper skin-side down on a large roasting tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle with oil, scatter with mandarin and lemon rinds and season to taste. Roast until cooked through (8-10 minutes).
- 3For mandarin and fennel sauce, heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add fennel seeds and dry-roast until fragrant (30 seconds). Add mandarin and lemon juice, and season to taste. Bring to the boil, then, whisking constantly, add butter a piece at a time, whisking until thick and smooth before adding next cube. Add mandarin and lemon pieces and fennel fronds and simmer to warm through.
- 4Toss fennel in a bowl with extra olive oil and extra lemon juice to taste, and season. Scatter snapper with fennel, spoon mandarin sauce on top and serve with garlic mash.