I used to stand in front of the fish counter, looking at all the options but never choosing the whole fish–worried that it would be way too much work.

I often thought back to one of my vacations (to Zihuatanejo, Mexico) where I had the most amazing whole pan-fried garlic red snapper. I desperately wanted to reproduce the recipe, but knew that cooking a whole butterflied fish would probably take more effort and a much larger fry pan than I was willing to invest in.

So, when I was perusing the Whole Foods fish counter a few weeks ago and saw these beautiful whole Vermillion Snappers staring back at me, I just couldn’t resist the temptation any longer.

I bought the whole fish.

I asked the fishmonger to clean it and remove the scales for me–he happily obliged. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I was determined to cook it, keep it easy and make it taste good.

Luckily, this turned out to be much easier than I had ever anticipated.

I kind of had an idea of what I wanted to do with it, so I did a quick web search when I got home and decided on a recipe for Baked Whole Red Snapper with Garlic. It looked simple and sounded delicious, so I saved it to my Plummelo recipe box and got started.

Cooking a whole fish in foil is actually quite simple. Make sure your piece of foil is large enough to lay the fish on and to completely envelop it–almost like a parchment packet. Spread a little olive oil on the skin to prevent it from sticking (optional), season with salt and pepper, stuff the cavity of the fish with fresh herbs, lemon slices and butter and then add your liquid (to encourage steaming). In 45 minutes you have an amazing, juicy, flavorful meal that would pair well with just about any side dish.

The results of my snapper experiment? Amazing! It was moist, flavorful, delicate and delicious. My husband and I agreed that it was some of the best fish we had ever tasted. I will definitely be using this trick again in the future.