The second offering from my fish CSA was two big whole haddock. Fortunately they were already gutted.
One is still in my freezer. The other I stuffed with a lemon and roasted whole. Here's what you do:
Snip off the fins with a good pair of scissors, and place the fish on a bed of foil in a dish big enough to hold it. Preheat the oven to 400.
Squeeze a lemon over the fish, and then stuff the halves inside the belly cavity. If you like, add a good 1/2 cup or so of white wine over all.
Sprinkle with good salt.
Fold the foil over the fish, making a tent, and bake for 45 minutes or so.
Remove the foil bed to a platter, and with a good knife, flip the top half of the body of the fish over, revealing the spine. Grab the tail and pull the whole skeleton toward the head. The whole thing should come off all at once, leaving you with the fish's head, spine and tail (which you can drop right into a stockpot, to make stock with) and two big fillets of fish meat. There may still be some small bones in the fillets, but that's the beauty of cooking fish whole--the deboning/filleting process takes approximately two seconds after it's been cooked.
I served with green beans and sweet potato fries.
You got fish in your CSA? I joined one last year in the midwest - unfortunately our summer was cool, so I really didn't get much other than kohlrabi (which I tried a dozen different ways and never liked) and carrots the first month.
ReplyDeleteThat fish dish reminds me of a dish my MIL makes - still not a huge fan of fish, but I am trying!
Did you ever try Salt Baked Fish? It's really nice, gets a flavor and texture way different than fish prepared any other way. Basically, you heat up 2 containers of kosher salt in the oven. When it's good and hot, you bed the fish in it - put a layer of salt on bottom, lay the fish in it, and then add another layer of salt on top. (Leave the fish whole, but gutted of course.) Bake it for about 1/2 hour (time varies based on the fish). It's a fantastic way to prepare whole fish!
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