Featuring Peter Joakim Immerschmitt’s “BBQ Whole Baked Snapper”

Born in Munich, Germany I later immigrated to Australia where I now live in Putney with my beautiful wife Brenda and my wonderful son Sam. As a young boy I watched my mother in the kitchen while she prepared food, however my main interest in cooking started when I left home and had to feed myself. The social aspect of cooking on a BBQ is what I enjoy most plus I can make good tasting steaks and kebabs etc., accompanied by a nice salad with plenty of dressing. The satisfied feeling of seeing my family and friends enjoying the food I have prepared for them is always good. There is not too much cleaning up to be done using the BBQ unlike the usual pots and pans when cooking in a kitchen.

I predominantly like my Bavarian cookbook where I find inspiration and good recipes. My regular comfort food would have to be Thai chicken fried rice with lots of chilli flakes, however I do enjoy making pancakes or ham noodles with my son Sam.. My most favourite kitchen tool is my tongs,  salt, pepper and Chilli are the main ingredients in my pantry. Any form of dry or fresh Chilli is an ingredient I can’t get enough of. My favourite chef is my brother in law Alex as he cooks the most amazing food and mouth watering desserts. On a recent visit to Emerald Beach at Christmas I think I must have gained at least four kilo from eating all the beautiful meals he prepared. My favourite classic recipe is Ham Noodle known as “Schinken Nudel” in Germany.

The current trend I see in the restaurants is there are many open kitchens which I don’t particularly like. The noise of the chefs at work deter from the relaxed ambiance I like to experience when dining out with family and friends. I can recall a kitchen incident at home, when my wife Brenda was making potatoes and left the pot unattended for some time. Returning to the kitchen and find the pot had no water remaining and the potatoes were almost unidentifiable. I think we might have ended up eating pancakes that night!!

BBQ Whole Baked Snapper

Ingredients

1.5 kg whole Snapper (scaled, gutted and cleaned)

Lemon

Lime

Parsley

Thyme

Lemon Thyme

Salt & Pepper

Method

Preheat BBQ to 200ºC. Place whole snapper on a piece of baking paper on top of a piece of tin foil. Squeeze some fresh lemon and lime juice on the fish. Place slices of lemon and lime with some parsley, thyme and lemon thyme on the fish and finally seasoning the snapper with salt and pepper. Tightly wrap everything in the baking paper and then tightly in the tin foil. Place fish on a rack in the BBQ and allow baking at 150ºC for approx. 15 minutes. Leave 10 minutes before opening the wrapped fish and serve with steamed vegetables and salad.

Note: Snapper (knobbies, pinkies, red bream, squire) Pagrus auratus are one of the most sought after fish of recreational anglers around Australia’s coast. They offer great sport on light tackle and are sensational to eat.