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Easy and vibrant baked whole snapper recipe with mango salsa or mango colada broth. Impressive, healthy and delicious.
Baking whole snapper
Baking a fish whole is a wonderfully easy way to achieve perfectly firm flaky and tender meat with a crispy skin for that ideal accompanying crunch. By making a nest of sweet potatoes for the snapper to sit on we can infuse even more flavour into it by pouring in a flavoursome broth which will steam flavour into the fish and also cook the potatoes to just tender for a one-pot wonder. Prepare a simple sweet, sour and spicy mango salsa to top the dish and serve the whole snapper in all its glory.

Snapper varieties and other fish alternatives
Snappers, as well as sea bass and sea bream which are good alternatives, are the perfect size to fit in a roasting tin and bake and serve whole. We have used a rainbow snapper because it looks impressively beautiful and vibrant. Red snappers are just as attractive on a plate and worth hunting out but if you can’t find one, use sea bass or sea bream instead. Rainbow and red varieties of snapper are often fished off the coasts of South America, the Caribbean, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Many fish of the size of the snapper are often found in the Mediterranean and therefore served with the luscious local produce prevalent in these sun-laden countries.
Mango flavours for the baked whole snapper dish
In Greece for example, tomatoes and feta are served as accompaniments or in Spain, peppers and saffron butter flavour the fish or fennel and grapefruit in southern France is a classic. These are a few of the go-to recipes, however, due to the geographical fishing location of these snappers, we want to showcase an array of flavours a little bit more Caribbean or a little bit more Florida keys, and a little bit more punchy! So, we have paired this delicious baked whole snapper fish with an incredibly zingy sweet and savoury mango salsa with a comforting Caribbean sweet potato side and a broth-based on the flavours of a boozy mango colada cocktail you can imagine sipping in a beach bar with the silhouettes of palm trees against the backdrop of a pacific sunset.



Sweet and sour mango salsa
Sweet and sour has always worked, just look at a classic Chinese sweet and sour dish that uses pineapple and peppers. You could even use pineapple as a substitute for mango in this recipe, but whichever fruit you use for the sweetness, the savoury nature added by ingredients such as celery, shallots, chilli, garlic and coriander, the result is just magic. We have used this formula too to add a savoury note to the mango colada cocktail which still incorporates rum and coconut, but is given a savoury umami note by infusing it with fish stock, it’s a little bit like a western version of a Thai curry, and of course has that spiciness too with the zing of red chilli and ginger.

How to prepare baked whole snapper
The preparation for our baked whole snapper recipe is simple too.
Make sure your fish has been descaled and gutted, which your fishmonger will do for you and then stuff the cavity with crushed garlic, shallot, lime and coriander which you will have leftover from the salsa ingredients. This just helps to punch in more flavour to the fish and the broth. Season the fish with some sea salt which will help the skin crisp up.
Next, cube some sweet potatoes and chop some red onion and place them in a little mound in the middle of the baking dish. This makes a trestle which gives the fish something to sit on without having to touch the bottom of a roasting hot dish. This way, air can move over and under the fish helping to cook more evenly without any skin sticking or going soggy. You can fry the potato and onion in some olive oil just to give them a little colour prior, but it isn’t a necessity and certainly not if you want to keep your time down.
When preparing the broth which is equal parts fish stock: mango juice and coconut milk with just a shot of rum to give it a little kick, you can just mix it all together and pour it into the dish, but just to cook off some of the alcohol for a more rounded flavour, splash the rum in a hot pan which will start to evaporate quite quickly then add the stock, juice and coconut milk and bring to the boil. This will help the flavours infuse before pouring over the potatoes that the fish will sit on. Once prepared, place the fish on the potatoes and red onion and lay a half-length of large spring onion on top and bake in a hot oven for around twenty minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
Whilst the fish is baking in the oven, this will give you a little time to prepare the mango salsa, so get a sharp knife ready as this part means using fine chopping skills. This salsa employs a myriad of flavours from sweet and spicy to sour and aromatic which really works well, especially with fish. Finely chop up one shallot, a slice of celery a similar size along with some ginger, a de-seeded red and green chilli and some fresh coriander. You’ll need about 150g of mango which equates to roughly one small Mexican mango or two slices or half a normal mango. Run your knife from the top of the mango and slice through the flesh as near to the middle as you can just avoiding the hard inside as close as you can. Crisscross two of these slices and invert the skin to pop out the little squares and slice them off into the rest of the salsa ingredients. Squeeze a whole lime over and set aside so all the flavours can get to mingle together and produce this wonderful complex, sweet, spicy and sour salsa. If you want to add a complex umami flavour into the mix too, then add a little Thai fish sauce and a touch of garlic, but totally optional. Just mix it all together and liberally spoon it over your fish when they are baked.
More delicious fish recipes on the blog
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Baked whole snapper with mango salsa recipe
Ingredients
- 2 whole rainbow snapper or red snapper, gutted and descaled
- 1 small bunch of coriander/cilantro, torn
- 1 lime, chopped in half
- 1 shallot roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1 large spring onion, cut lengthways
- salt and paprika
For the broth
- 250 ml or 1 cup of fish stock
- 250 ml or 1 cup of mango juice
- 250 ml or 1 cup of coconut milk
- 25 ml of rum
Mango salsa
- 150 g mango, small cubes
- 15 g of fresh coriander, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli, de-seeded, finely chopped
- 1 green chilli, de-seeded, finely chopped
- 15 g of fresh Ginger, grated or finely chopped
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- ⅓ of a celery stick, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon of lime juice (juice of 1 lime)
Instructions
- Lightly score the skin of the snappers and stuff each cavity with equal amounts of the fresh coriander/cilantro, shallots, lime and garlic. Season the skin with salt and paprika.
- Peel the sweet potato and cube into 2cm pieces. Chop the red onion. (Optionally fry for 4 minutes in a little olive oil to brown) Place the potato and onion in a baking dish to make a trestle, place each fish on top so that they don’t come into contact with the bottom of the dish. Place half a length of spring onion on each.
- Put a pan on the hob and get hot. Pour in the rum and reduce by half. Pour in the stock, mango juice and coconut milk and bring to the boil and pour the broth into the baking dish with the fish and potatoes and place in a preheated oven at 200℃/392°F for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
- Mix all the finely chopped salsa ingredients together and squeeze the juice of a whole lime over and set aside until ready to serve.
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