Poisson yéménite

Ingredients

The fish

• 1whole red snapper
• about 1.5 kg
• scaled, gutted and butterflied
• salt

The spice paste

• 6garlic cloves
• 3cm ginger
• 2hot chillies
• or to taste
• 2 teaspoonsground cumin
• 2 teaspoonsground coriander
• 1 teaspoonground turmeric
• 1 teaspoonblack pepper
• 1 teaspoonhawaij, optional
• juice of 2 limes
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• salt

To cook

• a clay tandoor
• or a very hot oven
• with a pizza stone
• or a hot grill

To serve

• on a shared tray
• with flatbread
• sahawiq or hot sauce
• lime wedges

Directions

1. Preheat it thoroughly before cooking. A hot grill gives similar results. Scale the whole fish thoroughly. Gut it and rinse out the cavity. It is bitter and should come out.
2. Rinse all of it out completely. Cut down right along the backbone. Cut from head to tail along the spine. Stop before cutting right through. Press it flat with your open hand. Both of those things are done. Cut slashes into the thick flesh. They also help it cook evenly.
3. Cut down in towards the fish skin. Do not cut right through the skin. Pound the garlic, ginger and chilli. Add the cumin, coriander and turmeric. Add the pepper and hawaij if using. Add the lime juice and the oil. Season the paste well with salt. It should be a thick spreadable paste.
4. Add more oil if it is too stiff. It must cling firmly to the fish. Rub the paste all over the fish. Work it right into all the slashes. An hour is a good minimum here. Heat the oven as hot as it goes.
5. Put the stone or tray in to heat. This needs the hottest oven you have. Preheat the stone for a full thirty minutes. A cool stone gives soft pale skin.
6. Let it burn down to hot embers. Lay the fish on the hot stone. Lay it skin side down onto the stone. Work quickly so the oven stays hot. Cooking it takes about twenty minutes. Leave it in place right throughout. Judging it takes a fork check.
7. Check there rather than at the tail. Any translucence means it needs longer. Take it out as soon as it flakes. It carries on cooking on the hot stone. Serve warm flatbread alongside. Serve sahawiq or hot sauce with it. It is fresh and very hot indeed. Serve lime wedges for squeezing. It does not keep at all well after.

Technique

• The traditional oven is a clay tandoor and the fish is pressed against its inner wall, which is extremely hot; cooks reach in with practice and long sleeves, and it causes real burns without that. The atlas also carries pepper bun from Taiwan, which uses the same clay-wall method and carries the same hazard — the technique recurs across continents. At home the hottest oven you have with a pizza stone preheated a full thirty minutes approximates it, and a hot charcoal grill is the closer flavour match.
• Lay the fish skin side down on the hot stone and leave it there without turning: the stone cooks the bottom while the oven heat cooks the top, and the skin protects the flesh while crisping against the heat.
• Marinate an hour or two but not much beyond three, since the lime juice starts to cook the flesh and too long makes it mushy before it reaches the heat.

Substitutions

• Hawaij is a Yemeni blend of cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom and black pepper used across Yemeni cooking; the individual spices listed give much the same effect.
• The backbone can stay in, which holds the butterflied fish together, or come out, which makes eating easier; both are done.

Variations

• Yemeni migrants crossed the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait for centuries and settled in Djibouti, bringing this dish with them; it is genuinely local now.
• The paste should be thick and spreadable rather than runny so it clings to the fish and forms a crust as it cooks, which is much of the dish.
• It is served whole on one large shared tray with flatbread used to lift the fish, eaten with the right hand — that communal eating is part of the meal.

History

Brought by Yemeni migrants across the Bab el-Mandeb strait; Djibouti City restaurants bake red snapper this way and serve it on a shared tray.

Frequently asked questions

What is Poisson yéménite?

Poisson yéménite is a main from Djibouti: whole fish butterflied, spiced and slapped onto the wall of a clay tandoor. Brought by Yemeni migrants across the Bab el-Mandeb strait; Djibouti City restaurants bake red snapper this way and serve it on a shared tray.

How long does Poisson yéménite take to make?

Poisson yéménite takes 30 minutes plus marinating of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Poisson yéménite?

Yes, within limits. Hawaij is a Yemeni blend of cumin, coriander, turmeric, cardamom and black pepper used across Yemeni cooking; the individual spices listed give much the same effect. The backbone can stay in, which holds the butterflied fish together, or come out, which makes eating easier; both are done.

What is the most important thing to get right in Poisson yéménite?

Preheat it thoroughly before cooking. A hot grill gives similar results. Scale the whole fish thoroughly. Gut it and rinse out the cavity. It is bitter and should come out.