Denise says:
This recipe is a version of a dish I enjoyed recently when traveling in Israel. The seabass is marinated in chermoula, a garlic and herb paste, and then baked with tomatoes and peppers. Packed with colour and flavour, this recipe makes an impressive main course for any occasion. I like to garnish it with segments of lemon and tasty olives and serve with Middle Eastern pita bread to mop up the juices or rice or cous cous. I have used 2 large fish but if they come up small, use 4. This is a recipe that can be doubled in quantity without any adjustments.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes plus 2 hours marinating
Cooking Time: 45 minutes and 15 minutes cooling
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
2 Seabass (or other Mediterranean fish eg bream, mullet) 1.2kg / 2 ½ pounds – scaled and gutted. – ask your fishmonger to do this!3 large tomatoes – cut in to large chunks
3 red peppers – cut into quarters and deseeded
2 cm fresh ginger – peeled and finely chopped
6 threads of fresh saffron
1 tablespoon olive oil
Garnish
100g black olives
2 lemons – cut into segments
Sprigs of Coriander
For the Chermoula
2 cloves garlic – peeled and finely chopped
1 ground tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons paprika
Large bunch of fresh coriander- roughly chopped
8 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon salt
1 red chilli – seeds removed and finely chopped – optional
Method
1)To prepare the chermoula, combine the chopped coriander with the garlic, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1 tablespoon cumin, 2 tablespoons paprika, salt, chili, and water.2)Cut each fish into 4 pieces.
3)Take 1 tablespoon chermoula and blend with 6 tablespoons of the olive oil, the saffron and ginger and set aside. Marinate the fish in the rest of the chermoula for 2 hours.
4)Heat the grill to its highest setting. Brush the peppers with some olive oil and grill for approximately 10 minutes or until the skins have blistered.
5)Remove the peppers and transfer to a dish. Cover with cling film and leave for 15 minutes to cool. Remove the skins and cut into trips.
6)Grease a large oven dish with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
7)Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/ 350F/ Gas mark 4.
8)Place the strips of pepper on the base of the ovenware dish.
9)Put the fish on top of the pepper slices along with the tomatoes, the chermoula you used for the marinade and other that you set aside.
10)Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
To Serve the stylish way: Garnish with olives and lemon segments and sprigs of coriander.