Salt Packed Red Snapper

Red Snapper caught in Alabama by Rich Playford.

Whole Fish...we're talking head, tail, eyes, teeth...everything. Rich decided to try cooking a whole fish packed in salt...something he heard from a coworker. I went all over town looking for a whole fish...no luck. All local grocery stores said to try an Asian market. BINGO. I sent my husband to market, Viet Hoa Food Market to be exact (40 N. Cleveland, Memphis).

Rich walked in with 2 red snapper both about 1.5 lbs. We stuffed the cavity with lemon slices (wished we had fresh thyme but didn't so that was omitted). Mixed 3 lbs. coarse sea salt with egg whites and a little water. Note about salt: It is most important that you use coarse salt. Using regular table salt will make your fish way too salty. Surprisingly this method does not taste over salty. Coarse sea salt  or kosher salt is best.

Scales and skin come right off!

Layer about a 1/2" of salt mixture on the bottom of a fish plate, gingerly place the snapper on top then coated with remaining salt in a slight mound, leaving the head and tail in sight. Poor thing looked like he had been rolled up into a snowball. The oven was preheated to 450ºF and the fish went in for 27 minutes. The goal is to create a hard outer crust that keeps all the juices where they are suppose to be...inside fish resulting in perfectly seasoned, succulent meat. Encrusting will ensure that the fish is cooked evenly without any dryness. This method is quick, easy and has quite the presentation.

Once cooked, take a hammer to your snowballed fish. The salt should crack off in chunks. The skin will easily slide off the meat of the fish with a butter knife. Take a spatula and run in on top of the back bone. Wah-la. A beautiful piece of perfectly cooked red snapper. Take the back bone out and get the remaining fish from the dish.

Red Snapper from Viet Hoa in Memphis

Can't go wrong with this method. We will do it again, VERY SOON.

Bucket 'o Fish from Alabama

THE UPDATE Attempt #2 at a whole fish. Rich, my amazing husband, went fishing off the Alabama coast during Thanksgiving and brought back loads of red fish. While at the beach, we cooked another round of incredible salt packed fish. This time we removed the whole fish from the salt and transferred him to a plate, that way when getting the fish off the bone, if it falls to the side, no dips in the coarse salt. We squeezed a generous amount of lemon juice on top of fish and added pepper. What a treat to have fresh fish for Thanksgiving. Not traditional, but possibly a Playford NEW tradition.