Bond 25: How to cook red snapper

Some pretty awesome images of Daniel Craig in James Bond mode emerged over the weekend. In one of them he carries a speargun, while in another he holds a couple of freshly-caught fish – red snapper by the look of ’em, and large ones at that. Ian Fleming would be proud.

Quite what role the fish will play in the film remains to be seen, but if James Bond is able to get round to cooking them (another photo shows him gutting the fish at least), then he might like to look up some local recipes in the pages of his (and his creator’s) favourite newspaper, the Gleaner.

There is, for example, a recipe for stuffed red snapper in the edition of 3rd October 1968. This recipe, by Virginia Heffington and inspired by one from the Bahamas, involves filling the fish with a mushroom and breadcrumb stuffing (lucky Bond gutted that fish), wrapping it in bacon and baking it in the oven. If you leave the head on the fish, the author recommends covering its eyes with sliced olives in case that makes you feel a bit funny. I don’t think that’ll be a problem for 007.

Or how about red snapper soup? The food supplement published on 20th March 1986 featured a recipe from 1948. To make the soup, first make a stock from fish bones, vegetables, wine and water. Strain, then add the fish meat (cut into pieces), diced potatoes, carrots and turnips. After a while, add some flour and butter mixed together, then some cream and egg yolks. Serve with Melba toast.

The Gleaner of 28th January 1988 included a recipe for red snapper à l’orange. Place fish fillets in a pan and cover with a sauce of black pepper, orange juice, orange zest and oil. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

More recently, a recipe by Sandy Lee for red snapper with coconut and ginger sauce appeared in the Gleaner dated 19th November 2015. Sprinkle some jerk seasoning over the fish. While the fish is baking in the oven, heat some coconut milk in a pan, adding some spring onions, garlic, ginger and jerk seasoning. Put in some sweet pepper and carrots, then spoon the sauce over the cooked fish.

Whatever James Bond does with the fish in Bond 25, the publicity photos suggest that food, such an important part of the Bond novels, will make a welcome appearance on the big screen.