Braised Fish In Gravy Recipe

!±8± Braised Fish In Gravy Recipe

When you think of gravy, you might think of thick rich brown gravies ladled over roast beef or lamb or even white wine and herb gravies for chicken or turkey. However, what about other kinds of gravy, like fish-based ones? If you have never tried such a dish, the following recipe might interest you.

This recipe serves four to six people, the gravy is made with shrimp stock, and it has pieces of shrimp added to it. Since the word "gravy" is often used to describe a sauce made from meat juices, fish gravy is just as valid (and just as tasty) as some of the better known gravy recipes.

You can use a red snapper or anything similar for this. It should be between two and four pounds in weight. A four pound one might need a bit more cooking time.

What You Need:

3 lbs whole red snapper 1 teaspoon salt 1 lime 1 teaspoon black pepper 2 thinly sliced onions 1 minced hot pepper 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar 8 minced cloves garlic 1 stalk celery 3 cups water 1 fish head 1 thinly sliced green bell pepper 1 lb shrimp 1/2 teaspoon thyme 1 bay leaf 1 cup all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

How To Make It:

Gut and split the red snapper but leave the head on. Wash it with the juice from the lime, then rinse it and pat it dry with paper towels. Rinsing it with lime juice removes the overpowering fishy smell.

Make a few diagonal slashes in both sides of the red snapper. Combine two of the garlic cloves with the vinegar, salt, pepper, and some of the minced hot pepper and grind this mixture to a paste. Rub it into the slashes and inside the fish.

Put the fish in a glass dish and cover it with most of the onions, the rest of the garlic, the hot pepper, and the green bell pepper. Let it marinate for an hour. Shell the shrimp and keep the shells. Chop the shrimp. Put the extra fish heat and the shrimp shells in a big pan with the water, celery and the remaining onion. Simmer it for fifteen minutes.

Heat the oil in a big skillet. Let the excess marinade drip off the fish, and then dredge it in flour. Fry it for three or four minutes per side, or until it is golden brown but not cooked through. Turn the heat down and add the marinade vegetables. Add two cups of the fish stock, as well as the thyme, bay leaf and some salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer for about eighteen minutes. Take the red snapper and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and arrange them on a serving dish. Keep them warm. Add two tablespoons of flour to the skillet and cook the mixture, stirring and scraping the bottom to lift up any stuck-on bits.

Strain the gravy when it is thick, then put it back into the cleaned skillet. Add the shrimp and cook them until they are pink. Serve the shrimp gravy with the red snapper.