De Vette Mossel snoek
DE VETTE MOSSEL SNOEK
Niël du Bois of De Vette Mossel seafood restaurants knows all about braaiing snoek – he’s cooked more than 20 000 over the coals. At the launch of his book, also called De Vette Mossel, we had another opportunity to feast on this popular treat. Here’s his secret to perfectly braaied snoek.
1 butterflied snoek, cut at the backbone, not the belly oil sauce of your choice (see recipes below) 1 Grease the skin side of the fish well with oil and transfer to a folding grid.
2 Prepare the sauce of your choice.
3 Braai the fish only on the skin side over relatively low heat. This way you can see when the fish is done. Braai either high over medium heat for about 10 minutes or low over low heat for 20 minutes. You can add more coals later but remember to wait until they form a light ash layer again. Spoon the sauce over halfway through braaiing, according to the instructions in the method for the sauces (below right). The fish is done as soon as it becomes white and opaque and is no longer glossy. The belly (the thinnest part) will be cooked first.
4 When there’s about a millimetre of glossiness left on the fish, remove from the heat, add a good quantity of coals to the fire and when they’re ready return the grid to the heat – with the fish skin side up for the first time – and braai for about a minute.
5 Carefully open the grid. If the fish sticks in places, tap gently with an egg lifter to loosen. If the skin is burnt and sticks badly, the coals were too hot.
6 Put a steel tray over the snoek, close the grid and turn it over – the fish will now lie neatly on the tray with the fleshy side up.
SERVES 4-8
Preparation (including sauce) 20min Braaiing 10-20 min (small snoek);
15-25 min (large snoek)
1. GARLIC SAUCE
60 ml (4 T) butter 60 ml (4 T) chopped fresh garlic juice of 1 lemon handful of chopped
fresh parsley
2. JAM SAUCE
60 ml (4 T) butter 60 ml (4 T) smooth
apricot jam juice of 1 lemon
3. CHUTNEY
SAUCE
30 ml (2 T) oil
60 ml (4 T) butter 60 ml (4 T) smooth
apricot jam
60 ml (4 T) chutney juice of 1 lemon
METHOD FOR ALL 3 SAUCES
1 Melt the sauce ingredients in a small pot over a few coals or on the stove.
2 Spoon over the snoek – make sure you spoon from the bottom of the pot so you’re not using just butter/oil. Put the sauce on the thickest parts halfway through braaiing when the belly flesh is starting to turn white; it will run towards the thinner flesh automatically. You can add the sauce in two lots.
EACH SAUCE IS ENOUGH FOR 1 SNOEK