Having found a nice fillet of red snapper at the H Mart (a gigantic Korean supermarket in Niles), I decided to plan the day's dinner around the snapper.
For seasoning, I tried the Ras El Hanout mix from Spice House. Directly translated to "the best of the shop," Ras El Hanout (رأس الحانوت) is a slightly floral blend of mainly Indian spices like cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon and chili pepper. It's widely used in Middle East and North Africa--Ras El Hanout is an indispensable spice mix for lots of Moroccan meat dishes, and sometimes is used in almond pies and couscous. I wouldn't have known its existence, if Tom hadn't given me a small pouch of it a few months back. Ever since I huffed the mix, I've been in love with its subtle complexity and versatile use. (Plus it's close enough to the Japanese curry mix that I'm used to, so it's easier for me to figure out what the Ras El Hanout might be good with.) So, I rubbed the Ras El Hanout, salt and pepper onto the fillets, and lightly dusted them on both sides to give them crispy edges, then sautéd them in olive oil and rosemary.
For the side, I did a crossover dish: Japanese ingredients cooked Western way. I cut up about two inches of Daikon radish, a medium-sized golden Yukon potato and a handful of snow peas. Daikon and potatoes were then thrown into garlic butter in a pot. When the two veggies were slightly browned here and there, I added just enough water to cover the pieces, stirred in a pinch of chicken bouillon, and simmered them for a while. When it's just about done, I added the snow peas and a few sage leaves (from the baby sage plant growing in our container garden by the living room window) and cooked them on low heat.
As it turned out, the nameless veggie dish was better than the red snapper (though I might be biased--I love veggies). The slight hint of sage and the earthy bitterness of the fat, squat Korean daikon was a perfect combination. Butter added just enough richness to the mix--I could eat that all day long!
Although the Ras El Hanout is usually used for meat dishes, it worked fine on the red snapper. Tradition has it that Ras El Hanout is an aphrodisiac, but I didn't feel any hornier after eating the snapper than before. Maybe I should have been more generous about the amount of the spice (haha). Or maybe the spice mix made the snapper horny: its flesh had wonderful firmness to it, something that's pretty difficult to find around Chicago (supermarkets don't seem to know how to handle their fish here!). With a glass of Chardonnay (using it to make sauce for the fish provided us a good excuse to open it) and slices of Tuscan bread, it was a satisfying meal.
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H Mart
801 Civic Center Drive, Niles, IL
847.581.1212
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