June Nasso’s Jamaican Red Snapper

June Nasso was my mother’s best friend and confidant. She was also our Jamaican live-in housekeeper with a strong accent, a penchant for cursing, and a red snapper recipe out of her home town in Jamaica to die for.

On many evenings growing up on Hoskier Road, you could find June in our kitchen cooking up her Jamaican Red Snapper. The white flakey fish simmered gently on the stove in a bed of fragrant tomatoes and onions. This was the ReciBEE that got me to fall in love with fish. I hope you love it as much as I do and I know you’ll love June Nasso.

The best part is…it’s easy BEEasy! 

To read more about June, her famous Jamaican Red Snapper, and to get my top 10 OCBEE cleaning tips, click here.

Xx Bee

June Nasso’s Jamaican Red Snapper

5 from 2 votes

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Servings 4 people

Equipment

• For Sauce, Large Deep Skillet with Lid
• For Rice, Medium Sized Stainless Steel Pot with Lid
• For Crisping Fish, Your Choice of Large Skillet or Cast Iron Pan (I use cast iron, my favorite one is linked below)

Ingredients

  

Red Snapper

• 4 6 oz Red Snapper Filets June always used Red Snapper, but please be kind to yourself in these Covid times. This will work well with salmon, shrimp, or any white flakey fish, even swordfish will work.
• 1 Large Yellow Onion, sliced
• 2 Cloves Crushed Garlic
• 2 tbsp Capers If you don't have capers, you can use olives.
• 1 container Grape Tomatoes If you don't have fresh tomatoes please don't stress. June also used 'Pomi Strained Tomato Sauce' when fresh tomatoes were not in season.
• 1 Large Red Bell Pepper
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 1/4 cup Flour of your choice I used coconut flour.
• Kosher Salt
• Few glugs of Extra Virgin Olive Oil Appx. 1 tbsp for your sauce and 1 tbsp for crisping your fish
• Few glugs of White Wine
• Few glugs of Chicken Broth

Coconut Sticky Rice

• 2 cups Fragrant Rice I love Basmati or Jasmine. I have no idea what June used to use. Probably Uncle Ben's 😉
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened Coconut Milk or Unsweetened Coconut Cream
• 2 ½ cups Cold Water
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt

Instructions

 

Red Snapper

• Slice your onion into strips.
• Crush your garlic cloves.
• Slice your red bell pepper.
• In large skillet, heat olive oil and sauté onion, garlic, and red pepper over medium-low heat until onion and peppers are soft.
• Add your choice of tomatoes. If you're using fresh cherry or grape tomatoes, cook over medium-low heat until tomatoes render their juices.
• Add your white wine and your chicken broth.
• Add tbsp of butter.
• Reduce heat to low and simmer.
• Using a wooden spoon, gently break up the tomatoes as your sauce cooks.
• Cover and reduce heat to low and allow to simmer.
• While sauce simmers begin to prepare your fish.
• Rinse filets with cold water, pat dry thoroughly with paper towels, and season generously with kosher salt.
• On a large dinner plate or in a Pyrex dish add your flour of choice.
• Dredge fish lightly through flour. Just a light dusting is all that is required.
• Heat olive oil in cast iron skillet and place fish in skillet once pan is hot.
• Crisp fish on each side until lightly golden. Fish does not need to be cooked through.
• Once your sauce has thickened and all of your vegetables have wilted down, begin to add snapper filets, gently pushing them down into sauce.
• If you need to add a few more glugs of chicken broth, that's ok.
• Cover and continue to cook on low heat allowing the fish to simmer in the sauce until it flakes with a fork, approximately 15 minutes.
• While your fish simmers prepare your coconut sticky rice.

Coconut Sticky Rice

• Add the rice, coconut milk or coconut cream, water, and salt to your pot, cover pot, and bring up to a rolling boil.
• As soon as active boil is reached, lower the heat slightly and allow the rice to cook, absorbing all of the liquid. Approximately 15 minutes. Be careful not to cook on too high heat; rice burns quickly.
• As soon as the liquid has evaporated entirely remove pot from burner and turn off flame.
• Fluff rice with a fork.
• Add capers to fish and serve immediately over rice.

All illustrations by @courtneycoloring.