Smoked snoek on the Weber with cherry glaze and grilled peaches
A South African delicacy; snoek on the braai!
Having a braai (or, for non-South Africans, barbecue done authentically, ideally with wood and not briquettes) is a quintessentially South African cooking method.
And if you live in the Western Cape, in or around Cape Town, you will be well familiar with putting snoek on the braai.
Snoek is a long, thin species of snake mackerel. It can reach a length of 200 centimetres must most are no longer than 75 centimetres, according to the Masifundise Development Trust.
Because it is quite an oily and salty fish, it is often paired with apricot jam as the salty/sweet combination goes well together. To change it up a bit, I made a plum jam and served my snoek with grilled peaches and it was delicious. Try it for yourself, and let me know what you think.
Ingredients to make smoked snoek on the Weber
800g lighting smoked snoek (often called ‘braai snoek’ on South African retailer shelves)
50 grams Butter
2 heaped tbsp garlic
300 g apricot jam
2 tubs glazed cherries
4 tbsp Soya sauce
1 cup fresh cherries
3 yellow flesh dessert peaches
2 lemons
How to Prepare Smoked Snoek on the Weber
Light charcoal in a Weber. Leave the fish out to defrost.
Mix butter, garlic, glazed cherries, apricot jam and soya sauce in a bowl
Depip the fresh cherries and add to the bowl
Put the contents of the bowl in a cast iron pat on the Weber and leave the butter to melt. Once the butter has fully melted, leave the sauce to reduce into the right consistency (for about five minutes).
In the meantime, cut the peaches in half and depip them.
Grill the peaches for a few minutes alongside the cast iron pan on the braai grid.
Use spray n cook on the skin side of the defrosted snoek, to prevent it from sticking to the braai grid.
Put the snoek skin side down on the braai, then cover the insides with the cherry glaze. You will have some cherry glaze left over, this is fine.
Zest some lemon over.
Close the lid onto the Weber and leave to smoke for about ten minutes. Do not turn the fish.
The fish is ready when the bubbles are coming through the glazing.
Remove the fish from the braai and add onto your serving platter.
Add the rest of the cherry glaze over the platter.
Squeeze some fresh lemon juice over and serve with freshly cut lemon wedges.
Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to see it!
More Seafood Recipes
Below the newsletter block, you will find some more seafood recipes.
If you’re looking for another seafood dish, I have made two South African variations of the quintessential Spanish paella: a Boerewors & Seafood Paella, and a South African-inspired paella that included chicken and I made using an airfryer and skottle!
If you’re looking for something lighter, this Grilled Wok Cucumber, Kingklip and Halloumi Salad is a wonderful dish for those hot summer days. When I’d just discovered wok cucumbers when they first stocked at Pick n Pay, I cooked with it quite a bit and also wrote this Yellowfin Tuna Steak recipe.
Another personal favourite of mine is this Cape Malay Prawn Lentil Dahl dish.
Tuna is another delicious fish, and can easily be pan-fried. These tuna steaks
About Shawn Godfrey
Photo credit: Niki M Photography
Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.
Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.
It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.
On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).
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