From Jamaica with Love - Martin's baked red snapper

As you may or may not know, my family is originally from Jamaica, in fact I was the first person in my immediate family born in the United States. My ties to our homeland run deep: I spent most summers of my childhood in Jamaica visiting my Grandmother and I also got married in Jamaica 10 years ago. My husband & I spend at least one week a year in Jamaica and we have been lucky enough to stay at a private beach house in Runaway Bay for the past 5 years where we are treated to the cooking of an amazing chef named Martin Johnson.


I told Martin about this blog and showed him what I usually post on it. He was very impressed with my computer skills and agreed to be a subject of this blog entry. 

Chef Martin Johnson (with me of course)

Martin was born in Cave Valley Jamaica in the parish of St. Ann.  He has been cooking for a living for over 24 years, the last 14 of which has been at the Idle Hours villa where we stay.  He is an incredibly modest person with extraordinary talent and I was so happy to spend the afternoon with him on one day cooking and talking about his life and his love of food. 


Martin cooks at the Idle Hours villa year round for anywhere from 4 - 10 people at a time. If you had a chance to read the guest book there you would see the dozens of rave reviews of his amazing skills in the kitchen. While his dishes are simple in concept, they are incredibly complex in flavor. He has a preternatural gift for seasoning and I personally can say he has never served me anything short of delicious.


We were lucky enough on the trip this year, through a local connection Paul Williams (who is the BEST tour guide on the island), to procure a 7 1/2 pound red snapper right off the fishing boats at the port in Ocho Rios. This beautiful fish was large enough to feed 4 adults here at the house TWICE! So Martin & I decided to use him (he may have been a she, but I'll just assume it was a male fish :) as the subject of this entry - baked red snapper. There are so many great things about this recipe: it is healthy, quick, easy and requires only a cutting board, knife, grater and baking dish as far as supplies go.

BEFORE
this guy is 7 1/2 pounds!!

I won't bore you with the particulars of filleting and, descaling & deboning a large fish (Martin did it in about 6 min with a small boning knife and a pair of kitchen pliers - then it was my turn to be impressed), so let's just assume you have a large piece (or a few smaller pieces) of thawed and deboned fish on your hands ready to cook.  If you are adventurous, click here for some tips for deboning, descaling and cleaning of fresh fish.

AFTER
served with mashed potatoes and carrots!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 - 2 lbs fresh red snapper (any white fish like tilapia or trout can be substituted here, but nothing with a lot of oil like salmon)

3 Tbls of butter

1 small onion

4 bulbs of garlic peeled (bulbs NOT heads!)

6-8 sprigs of thyme

2 stalks of scallions

1/2 medium tomato

All purpose seasoning ((I purchased some of this from the grocery store in Jamaica, it appears to be a seasoning blend, so you can use any seasoning blend you already use ie: Mrs. Dash or even a simple lemon-pepper seasoning)

Salt & pepper

1 lime (optional)

Instructions:

1. Make sure fish is clean and relatively dry (not dripping wet)
2. Butter a 9 X 18 glass baking dish completely. 
3. Place the fish skin side down into the buttered dish and rub any excess butter onto the fish 
4. Using the finest end of a grater, grate the garlic and onion directly onto the fish 
5. Strip the thyme leaves from the stalks and add to the top of the fish 
6. Slice the white portion of the scallions and then finely chop and add to the top of the baking dish (this can also be done in a food processor - just don't turn it into mush - there should still be some definition to the scallion)
7. Deseed the tomato by cutting into wedges & remove the seeds with a small spoon. 
8. Slice and then finely chop the tomato and add to the baking dish on top of the fish 
9. Add a splash of hot sauce (OPTIONAL) 
10. Sprinkle fish with ground black pepper over the entire fish (this should be a light covering) 
11. Sprinkle fish with "All purpose" seasoning
12. Lightly sprinkle some salt over the fish
13. Using your hands rubs all the ingredients into the fish on both sides, making sure they coat the entire fish equally.
14. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
15. Let fish marinate in the dish covered for about 1 hour.
16. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until completely done.

Squeeze a little bit of fresh lime over the cooked fish & serve with vegetables, rice, potatoes - whatever you wish.  Our fish was in the ocean breathing a mere 5 hours before he was eaten, talk about FRESH FISH!  Yummy!!

Weeknight meals vs Weekend meals - Garlic Chicken Pasta

In my kitchen there are two types of meals, weeknight & weekend.  A weekend meal is something that takes more than 1 hour, has multiple courses and usually involves one or more fancy kitchen tools or ingredients. A weeknight meal on the other hand comes together in 30-45 minutes and generally consists of items I have on-hand in the kitchen.

This is a tasty weeknight meal - Garlic Chicken Pasta. I make a few variations on this same meal which at it's core is simply a seasoned and sautéed protein plus pasta and an easy to wilt/cook vegetable.  I generally look at what I have on hand in the kitchen and decide from there.

Two not so "usual" ingredients used on this particular weeknight were my secret kitchen weapon, Gourmet Garden garlic blend and the very versatile, Lemon-Herb seasoning from Williams Sonoma.  Although I do keep these in MY kitchen all the time, they may not be something everyone purchases on a regular basis, but I do recommend them both!

Two of my favorite things about this recipe is that is uses only 2 pots to cook and comes together quickly.  One of the steps that helps add big flavor in short time is to start by making a garlic olive oil in the microwave, which will be used to cook the chicken and at the end of the cooking process to bring all the ingredients together.

BEFORE

There are many substitutions you could make are baby spinach instead of arugula, shrimp instead of chicken, basil added in or tomatoes to make it more of a caprese garlic chicken. Play around with what you have in your kitchen - there is no wrong way to make this recipe.

AFTER

To add this to your weeknight meal menu:
GARLIC CHICKEN PASTA
Ingredients:

• 3 teaspoons, Gourmet Garden garlic blend (you can also substitute 4 garlic cloves, minced)
• 6 tablespoons extra-vigin olive oil
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon-herb seasoning
• 1 pound penne pasta
• 5-oz bag baby arugula 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot.
2. Meanwhile, combine garlic and oil in a small bowl and microwave until garlic is golden and fragrant, about 1 minute - set aside.
3. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt, pepper & lemon herb seasoning. 
4. Add 1 tablespoon of salt & pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente
5. Add 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat.
6. Add chicken and cook until well browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. 
7. Take chicken skillet off the heat.
8. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking water and add pasta to the large skillet.
9. Turn heat back on to low and add arugula, lemon juice, Parmesan, and remaining garlic oil. 
10. As the ingredients come together, add reserved pasta water as needed.
11. Season with salt and pepper to taste & serve.