Recipes / Fish
Apricot-glazed braai fish
Butterflied fish basted with apricot jam, butter, garlic and lemon, the way snoek is cooked on the Cape coast.
- Coals
- Medium coals
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 20 min
- Serves
- 4 to 6
Ingredients
- 1 whole butterflied fish, about 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), skin on, or the same weight of thick skin-on fillets
- Oil for the grid
- Salt and black pepper
Apricot glaze
- 100 g (7 tablespoons) butter
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) smooth apricot jam
- Juice of 1 lemon
Method
- Melt the butter in a small pot at the edge of the fire. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the jam and lemon juice until smooth, then keep it warm.
- Pat the fish dry and season the flesh side with salt and pepper.
- Oil a hinged grid well on both sides. Lay the fish in it skin side down and close the grid.
- Cook skin side down over medium coals for 10 to 12 minutes, brushing the flesh with glaze every few minutes.
- Turn the grid over and cook flesh side down for 3 to 4 minutes, just until the glaze starts to caramelise.
- Turn it back, brush with the last of the glaze, and lift the fish out onto a board.
Done when: the flesh is opaque and flakes easily with a fork, or reads 63°C (145°F) in the thickest part.
Tips
- Snoek is the traditional fish. Where you cannot get it, use Spanish mackerel, kingfish or mahi-mahi.
- The skin protects the fish, so most of the cooking is done skin side down.
- Fish sticks to a dry grid. Oil the grid generously and do not open it until the fish is cooked.
- Serve with roosterkoek or sweet potatoes, which is how it is eaten on the West Coast.
Snoek is a long, oily fish caught off the Cape. It is split open, braaied flat, and basted with apricot jam and butter. The same method suits any firm, oily fish.