Recipe - Moroccan Dinner Party: Braised Snapper with chermoula

So I got it in my head that I wanted to do a Moroccan themed dinner party, then realised I didn't have any Moroccan cookbooks. D'oh.

However, having had great success with Google previously, I googled "Moroccan Recipes" and chose the simple and most appropriate recipes to cook.

This recipe comes from www.allrecipes.com (copyright of Readers Digest) and the dinner party menu was as follows:

• Braised Whole Snapper with Chermoula
• Butternut pumpkin with honey and raisins
• Couscous salad with dried apricots & mint
• Saffron scented fresh figs with cinnamon and honey

This recipe called for whole sea bass, but there was none available and so I substituted whole snapper instead. Always use what is in season!

Ingredients

1 whole sea bass or snapper, salmon, jewfish or firm white fish (about 1kg)
4 garlic cloves

1 small red chilli, seeded

40 g fresh coriander

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ cup (60 ml) vegetable oil

1 lemon, juiced

175 g thin green beans, halved

600 g floury potatoes, peeled

2 spring onions, finely chopped (I'm not a huge fan of onions & sping onions, so I just popped 2 whole ones in with the fish)

250 g grape or cherry tomatoes - I used beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes from the markets for their colour & size differences

⅓ cup (50 g) pitted black olives

300 ml diluted or homemade fish stock, hot

Instructions

Cut about six deep, diagonal slashes in the flesh on each side of the fish. Place it in a wide, non-metallic dish.  

Put the garlic, chilli, coriander, paprika, cumin, oil and lemon juice in a food processor and process until blended finely.  Season to taste.  Spread about half of the chermoula inside the fish and into the slashes. 

Cover the fish and the remaining chermoula, and leave in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to marinate.  

Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Drop the beans into a saucepan of boiling water and blanch for 1 minute, then drain and refresh in cold water.  Thinly slice the potatoes and spread in a shallow layer with the spring onions in a wide, deep ovenproof dish.  Scatter the beans, tomatoes and olives over the top.  

Pour the stock over the vegetables and place the fish on top. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 40–50 minutes until the potatoes are tender and the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.  

Serve the whole fish with the vegetables on a platter, with the reserved chermoula as a sauce.