Sauteed snapper fillets with apples

When I had a little weekend house in Normandy I grew to appreciate the joys of sauteed apples in the local cuisine. There you usually had the apples to accompany a good pan-fried beef liver or boudin noir, the characteristic blood sausage, or black pudding, of the region. It was fun to go to the market in Verneuil-sur-Avre on a Saturday morning in the fall to shop for the local apples and charcuterie.

So I was attracted to Mark Bittman's recipe when I came home with some fillet of red snapper. He says it is from Brittany and he lists it under rockfish, with snapper as one of the substitutes. It's a simple recipe for 2 (I halved it for just myself, but here is the full recipe): Peel and core 4 not-too-sweet apples (I had a couple of Fuji apples in the bowl and they were surprisingly tart when cooked), slice into rings or wedges and saute in 3 Tbl butter, tossing and stirring until browned. Take 1 to 1-1/2 lbs fillet, skin on or off (I removed the tough snapper skin), dredge in seasoned flour, dip in egg, coat in unseasoned bread crumbs and saute in another 3 Tbl butter for 6 to 8 min. on both sides. Drizzle the juice of 1/2 lemon and an optional 1 Tbl Calvados or brandy over the apples and serve together.

I'll eat anything breaded and the breading combined with the mildness of the snapper meant there weren't too many fish smells in the kitchen, but you still had the great subtle flavor of the fluffy white fish, still quite moist. I think I would season the fillet directly rather than lose all that salt and pepper in the flour, and I would probably sprinkle some sugar over the apples as they cooked to add a little sweetness and help the caramelization. I didn't have Calvados so used Cognac, but would just skip it next time if I didn't have the Calvados to enhance the apple flavor. I suppose another alternative is to flambee the apples at the end.