Lemon Caper Sauce

~ Mary ~
There’s been a whole snapper in the freezer for a couple months now. It had come as a pair because I knew when I made this whole roasted snapper recipe from SAVUER it was going to be so great I’d want to do it again. WRONG! Everything about this whole fish just needed to go away – the fact that John hates bones in his food, the freezer door kept catching on the tail, and especially the stank that has been lingering in the mini.

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Whole fish is very showy, difficult to serve and doesn’t yeild a lot of meat. But the sauce, oh this sauce, is wonderful and goes with fish or chicken grilled or pan fried.
Don’t forget the FRESH parsley like I did in the photo – I did add it later. Italian Flat Leaf Parsley. I’ve had a new appreciation for it ever since the lovely French restaurant Mistral in Antwerp with Mickey, Niki & John. The proprietor, Marie, made an amazing parsley dish . What a lovely dinner in an amazingly small space.

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Lemon Caper Sauce
Saute:
1 Tbsp Fresh Minced Garlic
Add:
3/4 Cup Water
1 tsp Chicken Base can substitute chicken broth in place of water
1/3 Cup Lemon Juice
¾ Cup White Wine
¼ Cup Capers
1 Tbsp Tarragon – dried works fine
cook 5 min. thicken with a little flour and finish with:
¼ Cup Butter
6 Lemon Slices
½ Cup Fresh Chopped Flat Leaf Parsley
Heat just until melted and pour over fish or chicken.

Oh, I’ve got to try this. Have you had Lemon Chicken at Buca? It’s to die for this looks like it might be pretty close to the same. OK, tangent – Have you ever been seated at the ‘kitchen’ table at Buca? We had this priveledge for the kids’ birthdays in Nov. last year, pretty fun!
So, about the fish, can’t believe you’re not a fan of whole fish. You have to open it up and pull the skeleton out before serving. Patty left a squirrel fish in Roatan and we concocted a sauce to cook it in (probably didn’t tell you because we didn’t take notes or pictures, DOH!) It was really good, even the kids liked it.
I guess I have to have more practice with the whole skeleton removal. But that combined with the scales (I didn’t get all of them off) was just too much for “fillet o’ fish” John. Funny how he hates bones in his food, but will down a plate of wings like there’s no tomorrow.
I made cedar plank salmon last night for the first time – DAMN it was GREAT! No pictures there either- oh shoot – I guess I’ll have to make it again.
I haven’t eaten at Buca in over ten years – the kitchen sounds like it would be fun – I remember the hostess dragging everyones asses through the kitchen to get to their table. Would the Lemon Chicken be the same as Chicken Piccat? If so, this is the sauce – the only thing different is probably the tarragon.
Oh, bad news on the scales! I recieved a tip, use a beer bottle cap, it worked great. The scales do fly this way so doing it on the dock was wise. I read a skeleton removal technique on the internet. Can’t remember it exactly but pretty much just cut behing the head, flop it open and pull out the entire skeleton.
I don’t know if Buca’s Chicken with Lemon is the same as Chicken Piccat.
Visited alone, and it was charming. Almost glad my husband, Arnold, couldn’t make it!
Excellent food! Julie Esslinger