Snapper with Garlic Pecan Sauce

I'm often at the market trying to piece together what looks good and what might work well with it. In this case, I was home with a bag full of leftover pecans from something or other that was made a few weeks ago and couldn't figure out what to do with it.

I came across this recipe in the NYT - Ajo Blanco American Style, and decided to give it a shot. It involved three steps:

1) frying some fish
2) making a garlic/pecan sauce
3) creating a citrus topping

As always the case, sauces take longest so I prepared that first. The sauce was probably the only part that went according to recipe. I toasted the pecans in the pan and tossed them in the blender, with some warm water. I blended in a few cloves of garlic and slowly added in extra virgin olive oil. This ended up tasting REALLY good.

I dredged some snapper in flour and pan fried them. Fried fish is always good.

Finally, I cut a grapefruit into small pieces and mixed it with strips of roasted poblano pepper for some heat. I served it with some wild-rice in a box.

The dish turned out like this:


It tasted as good as it looked. The only complaint that I had was the topping. Next time, I cut the grapefruit and pepper much smaller.

recipe:

Sauce:

Roast one Poblano pepper while Pan toasting 1/3 cup of pecans. Blend/Liquefy pecans with warm water until consistency becomes on the verge of smooth. Add poblano, salt, pepper, honey and four cloves garlic then blend until smooth. Gently add extra virgin olive oil and blend until consistency turns creamy

Protein:

1 lb of mackerel or other firm fish with skin on one side, filleted into at lest 4-6 pieces. Salt and pepper both sides then flour the skin side (both sides if there is no skin side). Fry in olive oil for 5 mins total.

Garnish:

Cube one large grapefruit, mix in a bowl with little sea salt, honey and balsamic vinegar.

Serving:

Pool sauce on plate. Top with fish and garnish then serve with veg and/or rice of choice.