Oven Poached fish in olive oil

September 9, 2010

Oven Poached fish in olive oil,
Gourmet’s Five Ingredients, pg 75

I've been spending a lot of time at Mac's this last week. So, between eating out and finishing the left-over stuffed peppers, I haven't cooked much. It's time to get back to it. So, here we go...

I had serious doubts about this recipe. I like all the ingredients, but it cooks in A LOT of oil.

¼ cup capers, rinsed
2 ½ pounds scrod or halibut
1 ½ large lemons, thinly sliced
¼ cup fresh flat leaf parsley
2 cups extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 250°F.

Rinse the fish and pat dry. Sprinkle fish with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Let stand for 10 minutes. Chop half the capers. Arrange half the lemon slices in an 8-inch baking dish and arrange fish in 1 layer over the lemons. Top with whole and chopped capers, remaining lemon slices and 3 T parsley, then pour the oil over the fish.

Bake, uncovered, in the middle of the oven until the fish flakes easily, about 1 hour.

Serve fish with some of the lemons, capers and oil spooned over. Garnish with parsley.

How I did it: I used Mahi Mahi. I seasoned it with Mediterranean salt, failing to realize that that much lemon and capers would dwarf the taste of the salt. I could have used my regular sea salt. I didn’t measure the oil, I just used enough to cover it completely. Save the remaining lemon oil to use in salad dressing (strain it through cheese cloth or a fine sieve first. Keep refrigerated).

This turned out better than I thought. The fish was a little over cooked (tough) but not at all dry. But, then again, how could it be since it was cooked in oil.