Lemony Panko Crusted Snapper

It has been a while. Again. Excuse number one: the last few days have been spent meticulously avoiding dying from a particular stomach plague. Friday night I thought the Ashland ER was going to be receiving a visit. Saturday was spent in bed. Sunday. Well, the kids are back, my stomach is more or less not killing me. Today I made some almond hazelnut butter, along with some lemon cupcakes. Both surprised me and ended up pleasantly edible.

However, those aren’t the things I’m posting tonight. I’ve been meaning to put up the following recipe for weeks. Excuse number two? Don’t have one, not making one. Laziness? Busyness? Both, but still no excuses. ; ) I won’t lie. This recipe isn’t light on the calories, or butter. It is incredibly delicious. When fed to the 5 year old, he was delighted and ate every last morsel on his plate.

Red snapper isn’t usually at the top of my enjoyed fish consumption list. Probably because I’m never quite sure how to cook it. Halibut’s my favorite. Salmon’s a close second. I imagine you could prepare a number of different fish types with this recipe – cod, tilapia, escolar, sea bass, snapper. I wouldn’t prepare salmon this way, though.

I served this with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. Delicious!

Lemony Panko Crusted Snapper

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. canola or olive oil
4 red snapper fillets (¼ – ½ lb. each), rinsed and patted dry
¾ cup melted butter
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1½ tsp. freshly minced garlic
1½ cups panko bread crumbs
½ cup cornmeal
3 tsp. dried mustard powder
3 tsp. ground black pepper
1½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. fresh minced ginger
1 tsp. dried smoked paprika
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tsp. ground cumin

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

In a medium sized dish, combine the melted butter, minced garlic, and lemon juice. As you whisk these together, they’ll thicken up into an almost paste-like consistency.

In another dish, combine the bread crumbs with the remaining dry ingredients and minced ginger. Mix well.

Coat each snapper fillet in the lemon-butter mixture. Next coat each fillet in the panko mixture. Get as many bread crumbs as possible on each side of the fish.

Heat the 1 tbsp. of oil over high heat in an oven-safe skillet. When the oil is hot (you can toss a bread crumb into the pan – if it sizzles and lightly browns, your pan is hot enough), add the fillets. Pour the remaining lemon-butter mixture into the pan, around and on top of the fish. Cook over high heat until the bottom turns brown (about 4 minutes), being careful not to burn the butter or fish.

When the bottoms are golden-colored, flip the fillets over and place the pan into your preheated oven. Bake until the fish flakes apart easily (8 – 10 minutes).

Remove from the oven and serve.