Red Snapper with Fennel Seeds – Profile – Amanda Hesser

Red Snapper with Fennel Seeds and Vermouth

I recently joined Mary Berger at One Perfect Bite and a group of bloggers who are highlighting the “50 Women Game Changers” written about in Gourmet Live Blog. The idea is to profile one woman each week and to cook one of her recipes. Week 22 is dedicated to Amanda Hesser.

Amanda Hesser - Courtesy Food 52

Amanda began her cooking and writing career in Burgundy, France, where she graduated from the Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne, and worked as a private chef for the founder of the school, Anne Willan. During here stay there she came up with the content of her book The Cook and the Gardener (2000), and her articles began appearing in newspapers in the United States. The New York Times hired her to write articles, and she began her Recipe Redux column, where she challenged cooks and chefs to modernize outdated recipes that were sent in to the Times over the years. Amanda has others books to her credit, and her most recent book is The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century (2010); and currently, Amanda co-partners the Food 52 Blog with Merrill Stubbs. Amanda is also a wife and mother of two children. What I’d like to know is how does she do it all? Here is a link where Amanda talks about the New York Times Cookbook.

I chose this dish because it is a quick and easy healthy recipe; it uses little butter, and the fennel seeds give a memorable flavor. The full title of this week’s recipe is “Red Snapper with Fennel Seed, Tomato, and Vermouth,” and it is courtesy Amanda Hesser from The Cook and the Gardener.  My family loved it!

Prep Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  10 Minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter, unsalted

1-½ teaspoons fennel seeds, slightly crushed

4 red snapper fillets (about 1-1/2 pounds with the skin)

Coarse or kosher salt

4 tomatoes, cored, peeled, seeded and diced (about ¼ inch)

¼ cup dry vermouth, or white wine

Procedure:   (Pre-heat the oven to 375°)

1)  In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the butter to foaming over medium heat. Sprinkle in the fennel seeds and lay the fillets skin side down. Season the fillets with salt and sauté 4-5 minutes until the fish skin is crispy. Remove the fish from the pan and place on an ovenproof plate. Place the fish in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes.

2) While the fish is in the oven, add the tomato to the pan to soften and absorb the juices in the pan. Add the vermouth and boil for 30 seconds. Stir well and add more salt if needed.

3) Test the fish by lifting a layer of the flesh with the tip of the knife. As the fish cooks its flesh turns from opaque to white. If it is ready, it should be white with a thin opaque line in the center. It will finish cooking on the way to the table without getting overcooked. Transfer the fillets to a serving platter and spoon the sauce around the fillets.

Healthy eating!

The following is a list of bloggers who are also participating in this blog fest writing about the “50 Women Game Changers.”  If you are interested in participating, contact Mary Berger at One Perfect Bite. Please check out the following sites to see what stomach growling recipes these bloggers have come up with:

Val – More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne – Eats Well With Others, Taryn – Have Kitchen Will Feed,Susan – The Spice Garden, Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey, Heather - girlichef, Miranda – Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette – Healthy Living, April – Abby Sweet , Katie -Making  Michael Pollan Proud, Mary – One Perfect Bite, Kathleen -Bake Away with Me Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen, Sue – The View from Great Island, Barbara – Movable Feasts, Kathleen – Gonna Want Seconds, Amy – Beloved Green, Linda -  Ciao Chow Linda, Linda A - There and Back Again Martha – Lines from Linderhof, Nancy – Picadillo, Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica – My Catholic Kitchen