Main · 40 minutes · Serves 2
Whole fish in foil with French Citrus
Cooking a fish whole is easier than cooking a fillet, not harder. The bones keep the flesh moist, the skin holds it together, and there is no moment where it sticks to the pan and breaks as you turn it, because you never turn it.
The parcel is what makes it forgiving. Foil or parchment both work, or parchment against the fish with foil around it, as in the photograph; what matters is that it is sealed tight. The lemon, the olives, the capers and the parsley inside give up their juices, the fish steams in them, and nothing dries at the edges while the middle catches up.
French Citrus goes on the skin, into the cuts and into the cavity before the parcel closes. It already carries lemon peel and tarragon, so the lemon slices in the cuts are doing the same job twice, which is rather the point.
- Serves
- 2
- Time
- 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 whole sea bream or sea bass, about 600 g, gutted and scaled
- 2 to 3 tbsp French Citrus
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- A handful of black olives
- 1 tbsp capers, drained
- A small bunch of flat-leaf parsley
- Flake salt, only if it needs it
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan.
- Pat the fish dry inside and out.
- Lay a large sheet of foil or parchment on a baking tray, long enough to wrap the fish with room to spare. For parchment inside foil, lay the foil first and the parchment on top.
- With a sharp knife, cut three or four deep slashes across each side of the fish, a couple of centimetres apart, down to the bone.
- Rub the fish all over with the oil, then with the French Citrus, working it into the cuts and putting some into the cavity as well. Tuck half the parsley inside.
- Cut the lemon slices in half and push one half into each cut. Put any slices left over into the cavity.
- Lay the fish in the middle of the sheet and scatter the olives and capers around it and the rest of the parsley beside it.
- Bring the sides up over the fish and fold and crimp the edges together into a sealed parcel: loose over the fish, tight at the seams. Parchment does not hold a crimp the way foil does, so fold its edges over twice.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Open one corner carefully, away from your face, and check the thickest part behind the head: the flesh should be white and lift easily from the bone.
- Open the parcel at the table and spoon the juices from the bottom over each portion as you lift it off the bone. Taste before you salt; the blend and the capers have some already.