Delicious, easy baked fish with just the right amount of tang and spice.
I can’t tell you how much I love love LOVE baked fish! Especially if it’s a meaty white fish like cod or basa. In my early days of baking fish, I would just season it with salt & pepper and maybe add some sort of acid (balsamic vinegar, orange juice, or lemon juice). While I still love the simplicity of that, sometimes it’s nice to add a little oomph to make it a special meal.
So here’s a fairly quick recipe for a Mediterranean style baked fish. I made this with Basa but it can be made with any kind of white flesh fish (or even snapper).
Mediterranean Baked Fish
Course: MainCuisine: MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes10
minutes20
minutesIngredients
½ kg fish
5 cloves of garlic
¼ cup coriander leaves
2 tbsp capers
5 tbsp lemon juice
5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp melted butter
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp black pepper
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp cumin powder
½ tsp paprika
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 180C.
- In a bowl, prepare the lemon mixture -> lemon juice, olive oil, and melted butter.
- In a separate bowl, prepare the flour coating -> flour and all the spices.
- Pat dry the fish fillets with a paper towel and cut into medium-sized pieces.
- Using a fork, dip the fish in the lemon mix, lift it out and give it a quick shake to remove excess drip, and place in the flour mixture to coat. Do this for all the fish.
- In the remaining lemon mix, add the crushed/minced garlic.
- Heat a large frying pan and drizzle about 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry fish on high heat to attain a golden crisp colour on both sides (the fish does not need to be cooked through). This ensures the coating gets a nice colour and doesn’t go soggy during the baking process.
- Arrange the fish in an oven-proof baking dish.
- Evenly pour over the remaining lemon mixture.
- Sprinkle with capers.
- Bake uncovered for 10 minutes (I use the oven + grill option).
- When the fish is out of the oven, garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
- Serve with jasmine rice, coconut rice, cauliflower rice, couscous, or on its own. In the photo here I’ve served it with pearl couscous.
