Salt-Baked Pink Snapper with Traditional Greek Salad

Salt-baked fish looks like a restaurant trick, but it's one of the easiest ways to cook a whole fish at home, no filleting, no guesswork, just a hard salt crust doing all the work. We filmed the whole thing start to finish and paired it with a proper Greek salad for a table that basically begs for a chilled glass of Elle Rosé.

Watch on YouTube ↗

Salt-Baked Pink Snapper

Ingredients

• 1 whole pink snapper, approximately 1 kg, cleaned and gutted
• 2.5 kg coarse sea salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 2–3 sprigs fresh parsley
• Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
• Lemon wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven
   Preheat a fan-forced oven to 180°C.
2. Fill the cavity
   Pat the snapper dry, then place the lemon slices and parsley inside the cavity.
3. Mix the crust
   Mix the coarse sea salt with the egg whites until evenly combined.
4. Build the base
   Spread a roughly 1 cm layer of the salt mixture over a baking tray.
5. Seal the fish
   Place the snapper on top, then completely cover with the remaining salt mixture, pressing firmly to form a sealed crust.
6. Bake
   Bake for approximately 25–30 minutes.
7. Rest
   Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes.
8. Crack and serve
   Crack open the salt crust, carefully remove it and brush away any loose salt. Peel back the skin and lift the flesh away from the bones. Serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon.

Traditional Greek Salad (Horiatiki)

Ingredients

• 2 large ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges
• ½ large cucumber, sliced into thick rounds or half-moons
• ½ green capsicum, thinly sliced
• ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
• 100 g Greek feta, preferably as one thick slab
• ¼ cup Kalamata olives
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
• ½ tbsp red wine vinegar
• ½ tsp dried Greek oregano
• Sea salt
• ½ tbsp capers, optional

Method

1. Combine the vegetables
   Place the tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum and red onion in a bowl.
2. Dress it
   Season lightly with sea salt, add the red wine vinegar and olive oil, then gently toss.
3. Add the olives
   Add the Kalamata olives and capers, if using.
4. Top with feta
   Place the whole slab of feta on top.
5. Finish
   Sprinkle with dried oregano and drizzle with a little more extra-virgin olive oil. Serve immediately alongside the salt-baked snapper.

This is the same instinct behind our favourite pairing rule: grilled or baked seafood with a squeeze of lemon is one of the easiest matches for Elle Rosé there is. The fruit and acid in the Grenache work with the fish instead of fighting it, and that Horiatiki brings enough salt and sharpness to keep every glass tasting fresh.

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