Salt Encrusted Whole Red Snapper

Between Top Chef and the Food Network we’ve seen several variations of cooking a whole fish in a salt crust and Curtis really wanted to try it at home. So we ordered a whole red snapper from our local fish market and brought home a 3.5-lb Rockfish (that’s what was available and the nice man at the market cleaned the fish for us).

At home Curtis combined an entire box of kosher salt (about 8 cups) with 10 egg whites (we just kept adding egg whites until the texture felt like it would stick together). He then put a layer of the salt mixture on the bottom of a roasting pan, stuffed the fish with slices of Meyer lemon, fresh rosemary and pepper and then covered all but the tail with the rest of the salt mixture. The salt crust was about ½ inch thick.

He baked the fish for 35 min in a 425 degree oven. The salt crust turned a nice golden brown. When the fish came out of the oven, he cracked the salt crust with a mojito muddle and pulled it off.

He peeled the skin off the fish and then the fish off the bones and we went to town. This was so moist and delicious that Curtis and I polished off the entire fish between the two of us!





And we had Eating Well Rocky Road Brownies for dessert!