A whole fish served on a vintage tray painted with flowers and detailed ornaments – sounds fancy, doesn’t it?
It’s actually the easiest dish to cook and one of those classics I never get tired of. You just need a fresh fish, butter, lemon, your favourite herbs and an oven. It’s that simple.
I know many people who think cooking a whole fish is kind of scary. I know, it sounds hard and something that shouldn’t be done before mastering multiple hard techniques in the kitchen. But that’s not true! It’s actually one of the easiest things to make and you should definitely give it a try, if you still haven’t!
White fish is also a very versatile ingredient – you can make it fit to a fancy French dinner or in colourful and hot Mexican lunch. You can use classic flavours like butter, garlic and rosemary or maybe something spicy like chilis, garam masala and ginger. Anything goes! So let your imagination fly and make this your favourite meal!
White fish with lemon, butter and thyme
Ingredients:
2 small white fishes or 1 large one (gutted) – I used gilt-head breams
1 lemon
50 g butter
a handful of thyme
salt
0,5 dl / 0.25 cups of olive oil
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Lay the fishes on a baking paper, on a baking tray.
Slice the lemon and butter. Fill the fishes with lemon, butter and thyme.
Add some salt. Drizzle the olive oil on top.
Cook in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until slightly charred and cooked.
The cooking time depends on the size of the fish.
Serve fishes whole with fresh lemon wedges and and maybe some delicious yoghurt based sauce on the side!