By Sarah Lagrotteria

Before parchment, seaside cooks made use of what was naturally abundant–salt–to keep their roast fish moist and flavorful.  Nowadays, restaurant chefs do so for effect–presenting a salt mold roughly the shape of a whole fish and cracking it tableside with one loud thwack of a hammer, releasing steam and the warm smell of lemon and herbs.

We spent last weekend with my family in Chicago and my brother Brian and my dad decided to try their hand at this method.  My dad got three beautiful red snappers and he and Brian went to work, using Mario’s recipe of 4 egg whites per 2 cups kosher salt (times 4 to cover all 3 fish).   We buried the fish in the salt and egg white combo and then baked them at 450 degrees for exactly 30 minutes.

My Dad cracked the salt crust open…

It took two tries to get a snapper out clean!

Brian made a beautiful spinach risotto…

While my dad and I skinned and filleted the snappers. We finished it off with lemon slices and fresh parsley.

Pros, the fish was delicious and it was a fun family project.  Cons, DJ Foods in my hometown is now out of kosher salt and my mom did not appreciate having to vacuum salt shards off the kitchen floor the next morning.  All in all a happy time.

xoxosl

P.S. Dessert was a french almond cake from 3 Tarts Bakery which is making my wedding cake.  More on that later…