Easy Baked Whole Snapper With Wine

I was talking to my personal trainer the other day. "You know I've always dreamt about running..." If you have seen me training, you know that running is my least favourite thing to do. She looked at me so puzzlingly that I had to clarify "I don't mean that I've actually aspired to run or hoped to run, I mean I've literally dreamt that I've been running along the street and then I wake up figuring that I've probably done my exercise for the day" I explained.

So I've been trying to do these running programs to get myself more familiar with the whole concept of running and enjoying it. I can't say that I absolutely love it but I'm pursuing it because I think that if I start to like it, I can eat more food. Is that a twisted way to look at things? Perhaps. It's really not in my nature to love exercise and I am the person that ordered one of those super fancy exercise bikes that was said to be able to burn an untold amount of calories and work lots of muscles. It was enormous and took up the better part of my bedroom. I climbed on top of it and reached out my short legs to the pedals that seemed to be designed for giants or daddy long legs, did about a good minute before realising that it was really hard work and called them to pick it up the next day.

The only thing that I really look forward to after running is the food afterwards. And I don't like to have to wait very long for the food so if there's a dish that I can leave the oven to cook for half an hour and then sit down to eat, then all the better. So I seasoned the fish and left it to cook and when I came back there was dinner all ready. I placed some baby spinach on a plate with some pomegranate seeds and made a quick dressing and warmed up some tortillas all of which took about five minutes. Mr NQN who had come for the run with me is usually fine with food deprivation unlike me, but I had to hold him back as he was hungry. He sat down and started filleting the fish before I had even finished taking these pictures! The fish was perfectly cooked and the flavours of garlic, herbs, white wine and chilli add much flavour to the fish. This along with the salad made a healthy, clean tasting Sunday night dinner at Chez Elliott and thanks to the foil, there wasn't much cleaning up afterwards.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a friend or foe of fitness? And do you prefer fillets to whole fish?

And P.S. after a few sessions running, I injured my knee so begins and ends my very short stint running!

Baked Whole Snapper With Wine

• 1 snapper, cleaned and gutted

• salt and olive oil

• 1 lemon, sliced

• 4-5 cloves garlic

• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried)

• bunch of fresh herbs (I used thyme and rosemary)

• 1 large red chilli, sliced

• 1.5 cups white wine

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Wash and pat dry the fish with paper towels and cut three slashes in the fish on both sides to allow it to cook well. Line a baking tray with at least 1 inch sides with a large sheet of foil or baking paper.

Step 2 - Rub salt and oil on both sides of the fish and cut one clove of garlic and rub the fish with the cut side of the garlic. Place lemon slices on the foil and place the fish on top of this. Fill the cavity with the garlic, herbs and chilli. Pour the wine over the fish and bake for 30 minutes until done.