Putting fire to any alcohol doused sauce makes me giddy, and according to what I am cooking, that energy presents in a variety of ways.
While prepping my ingredients for this snapper, I channeled Chef Louis from The Little Mermaid. Do you remember him? He danced and sang about his love for fish, les poissons, les poissons! I added to his song with every version of I will flambé the Grand Marnier: je vais flamber le Grand Marnier that I could muster. And as entertaining as I was, I drove my poor husband from the room, his ears sick of what amounted to an elocution of poorly remembered, high school French verb conjugation delivered in rhyme and interspersed with outbursts of les poissons, les poissons!
I admit to some nerves when I flambé, even though I have never had anything remotely scary occur — no eyebrows singed, no black smoke marks above the stove. Despite my zeal and, at this point, confidence, I do take a few precautions: I use a long reach lighter, tilt my head back a little, have a lid ready in case I need to extinguish the flame early, and, unlike some of the professional chefs I have seen, I take the pan off the heat — or turn the burner off completely — before actually igniting.
The process of flambeing the liqueur eliminates the sharpness of the alcohol and leaves behind a nicely caramelized flavor, but you can omit this step entirely, if you so choose. You will cook the sauce long enough to tame the alcohol regardless, and it will taste great either way.
I cannot wait for you to make this elegant, cozy dinner. It is remarkably uncomplicated and virtually foolproof. The fish could not be simpler to prepare: Seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper and cooked in a buttery bath of white wine, it comes out of the oven deliciously moist and flaky. Calculate how long to bake the fish by its thickness, about ten minutes per inch, and that will determine when to slip it into the oven.
The cream sauce is steeped with flavor from the flambéed Grand Marnier, as well as fresh orange segments and zest, shallots and tomatoes. It is intended for the fish, but you will not be offended if it cuddles up to other items on your plate.
Speaking of sides and accompaniments, you need some color: A sheet pan overflowing with a mix of vegetables like acorn squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli/broccolini, Brussel sprouts or anything else that looks good is always beautiful. Toss it all with olive oil, salt and pepper and pop into a moderately high oven. You will appreciate those crispy, browned bits on the edges even more than you thought after the cooler foods of summer.
I will leave you with a few tips. My first is to have all your ingredients prepped and measured before you start. I understand that should hardly be considered a tip, as it is standard practice, but do have things ready to go for this recipe. The second: Be patient while making the sauce. It must reduce by half more than once, which takes the time it takes.
Of course, I use the breaks between checking the reduction to perfect my Chef Louis routine, which leads me to my last helpful hint: Getting into character may make you a better cook!
Red Snapper with Grand Marnier Sauce
Ingredients
6 red snapper fillets or fish of choice
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 cup white wine
2 shallots, chopped
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned, plus zest from 1/2 orange
1.5 ounces Grand Marnier
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 tomato, peeled, deseeded, and chopped
Salt and pepper
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375F and have all ingredients measured and ready.
- Place half of the butter in the bottom of an oven proof dish large enough to hold fish in a single layer.
- Wash and dry filets, then salt and pepper them on both sides.
- Place fish in dish, add wine and set aside.
- Start the sauce: Place the remaining butter in a heavy- bottomed saute pan, skillet, or sauce pan and heat to medium.
- Once the butter is melted and beginning to brown, add shallots and half of orange sections and simmer about 2 minutes.
- Add Grand Marnier and flambé: use a long lighter to ignite the mixture and allow the flame to go out on its own.
- Once flame is out, reduce mixture to the consistency of a syrup.
- Add broth and reduce to half.
- Add cream, reduce to half and turn off heat.
- While cream is reducing, place fish in the oven.
- Bake 15 minutes — or to your liking — usually about 10 minutes per inch of thickness.
- When fish is 5 minutes from coming out of the oven, return sauce to heat.
- Add remaining orange sections, zest and tomato; simmer about 2 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper.
- Remove fish to a platter or individual plates using a slotted spatula.
- Spoon sauce over fish.
Cook's Notes
To flambe or not to flambe
-Lighting the Grand Marnier will enhance the flavor of the sauce, but if you would rather skip the firing, simply omit that step and continue to cook the sauce down to a syrup.
-If you choose to go for it, make sure you have a lid handy. Placing the lid over the fire will extinguish it if necessary.
Reducing and seasoning the sauce
-Reducing the sauce is important because it enhances the flavor and makes it thick; therefore, it is important. If you are not used to eyeballing this process, use a bamboo skewer or other way to measure the depth after each liquid addition.
-Once the sauce is made, make sure to add salt and pepper if needed. The saltiness of your both will have an effect on how much additional seasoning is needed.notes
