A magnificent dish is at your disposal today! This baked fish with vegetables is not only pleasing to eyes but also a feast to your senses!
Are you already knocked out by that insanely delish picture of baked fish & vegetables above? Com’on! I am sure you are! Of late I am sharing good amount of seafood recipes and I am happy about that!
I am aware that our blog is dominated by chicken recipes and nothing else can out-weigh that; but addition of new seafood as well as vegetarian recipes maintains the right balance.
After the recent sweep of cauliflower on internet, I developed quite a few myself and added to our repertoire; so now I can proudly say that our blog too is well-equipped for vegetarians with 100+ meatless recipes on its account till date.
But, today is dedicated to my darling seafood! This baked fish and vegetables is a Mediterranean inspired dish which may seem to be a little off track compared to spicy Indian dishes.
But since this blog is our journey for discovering world cuisine then what can be better than trying something as new and spectacular as this baked fish!
The recipe of this baked fish and vegetables is neither too complicated nor too simple I would say. You will need few specific ingredients for making this recipe of baked fish at home as without the right ingredients you won’t be able to develop that perfect 10-on-10 flavor.
For example, you will surely need the fresh rosemary here; dried rosemary won’t work as tucking in the fresh rosemary leaves inside the hollow of the fish ensure the flavors seep into the flesh of the fish while it is being baked.
Dried herbs work best while sautéing or roasting food without much of liquid. This dish of baked fish & vegetables is little high on liquid thanks to the white wine and olive oil which finally makes a great sauce to spoon over the baked fish or some toasted bread.
I strongly suggest you not to skip the white wine in this recipe because the wine adds a nice depth of flavor which can’t be achieved with anything else.
This baked fish is kind of a rustic recipe using the whole fish which is the core character of this dish. You may feel like using fish fillet instead of whole fish but I’m personally not in favor of that.
Using small whole fish brings out the real beauty of this recipe and I feel it should be retained as is. The vegetables underneath the fish are baked beautifully too and get infused with all the yum seafood flavor.
The additional olive oil helps to keep the fish moist and soft besides adding extra flavor. The subtle hint of star anise adds the final magical touch to the fish & veggies and completes the story.
I believe this is my very first baked fish recipe and I am glad that I kick started this category with as magnificent a recipe as this. This dish of baked fish is definitely an eye candy and I can vouch for its amazing taste too.
I used pink perch in my recipe of baked fish. Pink perch is not only a good-looking fish, but also have very firm meaty flesh which absorbs flavors beautifully.
Plus, the size of pink perch is ideal for this particular recipe of baked fish as we used whole fish instead of fillets.
If you don’t find pink perch in your locality or if you are not too fond of this particular seafood, you can replace it with any other fish of similar size which has some firmness so that they hold up during the baking process.
A good substitute of pink perch would be sea bream. Don’t hesitate to give this baked fish a try even if you are more into fried fish kind of food; trust me the flavors of this one will win you over like nothing else!
We do love our crispy fried fish or fish & chips, but this baked fish & veggies is a different league of seafood altogether! Enjoy!
- Sea bream / pink perch – 3, whole, scaled and gutted
- Salt – 2 tsp
- Black pepper – 2 tsp
- Lemon – 1, sliced in roundels
- Fresh rosemary leaves – ¼ cup
- Onion – 1, large, cut into roundels of 1 cm thick
- Potato – 1, large, cut into roundels of 1 cm thick
- Fresh thyme – 6 to 8 sprigs
- Tomato – 1, large
- White wine – 100 ml (about ½ cup)
- Olive oil – ⅓ cup + 3 tbsp
- Star anise – 3
- Fresh parsley to garnish
- Preheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F and place the wire rack at the lower third level of the oven.
- Take the cleaned and gutted fish in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of oil, 1 teaspoon each of salt & pepper and rub on both sides of the fish well.
- Take one slice of lemon and few fresh sprigs of rosemary and insert them into the cleaned gap of the fish. This will infuse the fish with fantastic flavors while baking. Let the fish marinade for about 30 minutes.
- Now take the slices of potato and onion in another bowl and season them with salt and pepper and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and fresh thyme. Give a good mix.
- Spread the onions and potatoes on a baking dish in a single layer. Lay few slices of lemon and few slices of tomato on top of the veggies.
- Place the marinated fish on top of the veggies. Then place 1 tomato slice on each fish and top it up with 1 star anise on each.
- Pour half a cup of white wine and ⅓ cup of olive oil over the fish and veggies.
- Bake the fish and veggies in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes or until the fishes are cooked through. You can check if the fish is done or not by poking it with a fork and it should be flaky.
- Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and serve your baked fish & veggies warm with some salads on the side. Enjoy!
resumeperk.com/blog/category/how-to/page/6 says
Baked vegetables are very savoury and really great for the health. I always prepare this dish for my kids. They really like it.
Meghan Morin says
Of course, this dish is healthy. Moreover, it looks perfect when it is garnished with freshly chopped parsley. However, can we substitute this fish red fish?
Isabella says
I really like dishes that are baked in the oven. It always looks and smells very appetizing.
Tom says
That looks really delicious. I hope to make it as soon as I’ll get a time. Thank you for sharing those recipes, anyway.