Huachinango a la Veracruzana- Red Snapper with a Spicy Red Sauce

Both of us are not fish lovers in particular but we were always attracted to the Red Snapper (the awesome pink hue could’ve had something to do with it mayhaps) and we always wanted to try it out. Finally on Friday on the way back from work we picked one up to kick start our weekend… A little reading up on the Red Snapper revealed that it is a Mexican favorite (abundantly found in the Gulf of Mexico) and is known to take up flavors very easily. We were sure that we didn’t want to cook it in our traditional way and thus we decided to have a Mexican ‘Cook’-Off, choosing Huachinango a la Veracruzana from the numerous recipes online (probably the most famous recipe for this fish).
Ingredients
Whole red snapper (we got the head and the tail removed)
Fresh Lime Juice – 2 tbsp
Salt and Pepper – To taste
Onion – 1 sliced
Garlic – 6-8 cloves peeled and diced
Tomato Sauce – 1/2 cup
Tomatoes – 3 coarsely chopped
Olive oil – 3 tbsp
Bay leaf – 1
Dried Oregano – 1 tsp
Jalapenos – 5 roughly chopped
Green Olives – 10 quartered

Marinade
If you’re using the whole snapper, clean it and remove the scales. The recipe told us to just poke the fish a bit using a fork, but we decided to go for scoring the fish (several diagonal cuts on both sides) since it looks better and definitely helps the marinade to sink deeper.
Lay the fish in a shallow dish.
Mix together the lime juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg and garlic and pour over the snapper.
Refrigerate for about an hour.
Sauce
Heat the oil in a large heavy bottom pan over medium heat and start frying the onions.
When they become translucent, add in the garlic and continue to cook for about 1-2 minutes until they are soft.
Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaf, oregano, jalapenos, and olives.
Simmer the sauce for 5 minutes to bring the flavors together.
Cooking
Remove the fish from the marinade and place in shallow baking dish. Cover the fish with the sauce and bake at 200 degrees (Celsius) in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes turning once.

The baked fish was succulent, to say the least. Even though it is baked at a high temperature for a long time, the fish doesn’t dry up and stays really moist and soft. It’s a pleasant change from fresh water fish where you have to spend hours, hunched over a plate, trying to pick out the minute bones lest you choke on them. Like a majority of sea fish, the snapper also has a central spine and only a few big bones (the ribs) and you can’t really miss ‘em unless you’re really careless.

If we enjoyed it so much I am very sure that the real fish lovers will relish it a lot more. Do try it.