New Recipe: Red Snapper with Orzo

So, miraculously, Utah county finally was blessed with a WINCO Foods grocery store. This store has amazing selection, prices, and great quality everything. As I have been shopping there the past few weeks it has been open, I have found ideas for dishes based on great things they are selling. As comes the inspiration for this Red Snapper dish I found.

Some people ask my how I became such a talented chef with good recipes, and I think half of it is finding good recipes and excelling at the executing the process of cooking the food. And of course tampering with flavor combinations and dishes to make them your own.

This dish was great, but even before I made it, I decided to change it up. The fish was supposed to be grilled originally. But since I have no grill, and am still saving up for my cast iron grill pan, I had to find an alternate cooking method.

Since WINCO sells Panko bread crumbs at an amazing steal, I bought some with the intent to bread and bake the fish to perfection. (for more infor on Panko style bread crumbs see my next post.)

To coat and bread a fish, there are two steps, first the eggs to have something for the bread crumbs to stick to. With only two fillets to cook, one egg was sufficient. Just beat it with a fork and place in a shallow dish (I used a pie tin). I have seen people use just egg, or use egg or milk. Your call.

For the coating, I mixed the Panko, kosher salt, pepper, and some freshly chopped parsley that i would also use for the orzo pasta side dish. Dip in egg mixture. Coat with Panko mixture. I just placed it on a baking sheet with parchment paper and baked at 450 degrees, I believe. It was hot enough to cook it well and fast and to give a light crisp to the Panko crust.

Orzo pasta is basically pasta that looks like rice. Very elegant and tasty.

This dish was pretty much the pasta with a citrus vinegrette. It had parsley, shallots, dijon mustard, lemon and orange juice, lemon zest, and oil. It was a great tart flavor, that just lightly coated the pasta. (Also more info on shallots soon!)

While it was a great dish, I think it could have a stronger sauce with a more pronounced flavor. I think this will be a dish I tinker with in the future. But it was a great light and refreshing component to have along side the fish.

And I have also decided I love Red Snapper.

Always in the kitchen,

Mel