From Mallmann's Kitchen to Mine
I first learned of Chef Francis Mallmann on the highly addictive Netflix series Chefs Table. Mallmann's episode, filmed mostly at his island camp in Patagonia, documents his journey from the classic French kitchens of his early culinary years back to his roots cooking with fire and earth in Patagonia. Add in that he fly fishes, my latest passion, for the fish he cooks at camp and I was hooked. A trip to South America to visit at least one of his restaurants was added to my bucket list. However, with the opening of Mallmann's first North American restaurant, Los Fuegos at Faena in Miami, I wouldn't have to wait.
Even better, when I learned Mallmann was going to conduct a cooking class limited to just 12 participants at Los Fuegos, I grabbed four seats for myself, my hubby Mike and Jen and Dan, my daughter and her husband. I love cooking classes. I always find one or two things, whether a new technique, tool, ingredient or recipe to bring back to my kitchen. The trick for me is to put whatever I have learned into practice fairly soon so I don't forget it (that time is getting shorter the older I get).
Chef Mallmann's class included grilled prawns, an eggplant dish, a rolled stuffed grilled tenderloin and my favorite dish of the day, salt crusted red snapper. Mike's response after one bite...I've been eating fish my whole life and this is the best I have ever had. Mallmann added no seasoning prior to cooking and only a good sea salt with a drizzle of olive oil over the flaky white meat to serve, the result was sublime.
A week after the class a group of us were having difficulty scoring a Saturday night Miami Spice reservation. I offered to host a dinner at my place where I would attempt to replicate the salt crusted fish with the caveat that an Uber Eats delivery may be needed in the event of failure. Everyone agreed and offered to bring the accompanying dishes and wines. I called Lorenzo's Italian Center in North Miami Beach and placed my order for a 4-pound red snapper to be picked up fresh that Saturday morning. Lorenzo's visits the fish market every day so you can place your order and know it will be fresh. Unfortunately, there were not any large red snappers that day but Robert from Lorenzo's had picked up some incredibly beautiful, fresh yellowtail. I took two 3-pounders, gutted, scales left on, headed over to the deli counter for some pancetta, grabbed a can of cannellini beans, some baby spinach and headed home to prepare. Below are some pics, you can click and hover over each for a description.
The Menu
Shrimp sauteed 2 ways, spicy and citrus by David
Greek Salad by Kathleen
Cannellini Beans with Spinach and Pancetta
Salt Crusted Yellowtail
Halo Top Ice Cream and Cookies by Raj
Assorted Red and White Wines
The Playlist
Amy Winehouse station on Pandora
The Night
Friends Kathleen and Gladstone Phillips and Raj and David Anderson arrived with their arms full of dishes and wines. We mixed a batch of Martini's to start while Amy sang about rehab. Raj, not a martini drinker, decided to try one but it did not alter her opinion of the classic cocktail, still not for her, but extra points for the attempt! We munched on David's shrimp, opened the wine and started to prepare the salt crusted fish.
This can only be described as fun with food. Everyone gathered around the kitchen counter while we mixed over 4 pounds of kosher salt with water trying to get a snowball like consistency. Explaining this was interesting as the group consisted of 2 native Floridians, a Jamaican, 2 Brits and myself, the only one with considerable snowball experience from my Chicago childhood. Once the fish were fully covered, Mike slid the very heavy tray into the oven and I held my breath.
We poured more wine and ate Kathleen's tasty Greek salad. We also debated the cooking time for the fish. Chef Mallmann had his 5-pound red snapper in Los Fuegos' 1000 degree wood-burning oven for 20 minutes. I felt since the two yellowtails were smaller, that same 20 minutes would probably work in my gas Wolf range wide ass open at 550 degrees. Hubby thought at least 30 minutes given the lower temperature. As in all good marriages, we compromised and removed the fish from the oven at 25 minutes and placed on the counter to rest another 20 minutes. This gave me time to finish the cannellini beans with pancetta & spinach, nice recipe here from The Splendid Table.
After the 20 minute rest, it was time to crack open the fish. The salt forms a plaster-like cast that needed my pounding mallet to open. Again everyone gathered while the skin peeled back effortlessly to reveal the perfectly cooked white meat. No Uber Eats tonight! We finished with Halo Top ice cream and cookies. I had never tried this ice cream before and found it very good, it's Raj's favorite and she is thrilled Aldi now carries it for about 1/3 less than Whole Foods.
The night came to an end and I gave thanks for good friends, good food, a loving spouse and further validation of a long-held belief... that pushing your limits, learning new things and most importantly, not being afraid of failure, leads to a fuller, richer life.
The Details
Although I had wanted to do one large red snapper I think the 2 smaller yellowtails were a much better way to go. Yellowtail is also part of the snapper family with a mild flavor, white meat, and flaky texture. I think the only thing I would prefer is if I got my hands on a hog snapper, which is actually not a snapper at all, but a reef fish of the Wrasse family.
The two 3 pounders were perfect for 6 people, but we did have some big protein eaters at the table. You could go with two 2.5 lbs. and be fine. I also want to try this with the smaller sea trout or mangrove snappers we catch just a few minutes from home in Biscayne Bay.
Ask your fishmonger to clean your fish but leave the head on, there is a lot of flavor there. Tell them what you are planning to cook and they will know what to do. Have them leave the scales on as this keeps the fish from getting salty, although next time I will have them scale just along the back as I had to pick out a few scales from the filet from that area since that is where you first peel the fish skin.
Make a mixture of kosher salt and water to a snowball consistency. I needed 4 pounds of salt. I used a disposable roasting pan to mix the salt in and a full sheet pan covered in foil for the fish. Once the salt mixture will hold together lay a layer on the sheet pan. Place the fish on top and cover with the salt mixture. You want it totally covered without any openings for steam to escape. The steam is what will cook the fish.
Preheat your oven as high as it will go and place fish in. As I said above, we did 550 for 25 minutes with a 20-minute rest and were good. I would adjust time up or down 5 minutes depending on size.
After the fish is done resting, crack open. Use only as much pressure as needed so you don't bruise the fish. Once the top layer of salt is removed take a sharp knife and run along the top spine of fish, you should be able to use a fork or spatula and pick up part of the skin at the top and just peel back. Next lift off the top filet from the spine and place on a warmed platter. You may notice the antique fish serving set in the pics. I borrowed this from my daughter Jen, we gave Dan and Jen this set as a wedding gift to remember a special meal we had on a trip to Spain where they were engaged.
Now the fun part, see pic above, pick up the head and just lift, the whole spine and bones should just pull up in one piece. We had very few bones in the fish when we served. I always work with a garbage bowl on the counter, so I dropped the head and spine in there. The boys starting picking at the little pieces of meat on the spine and said it was the best bites of the fish. So do with that information what you like!
You will now have the lower filet which should also just lift off the back skin. Place on a platter, drizzle with the best olive oil you have and sprinkle with a good salt. I used Maldon, which I also get from Lorenzo's. Enjoy!
