Baked Fish with Lemony Potatoes

Photo: Julie Biuso

Serves 4

Softening the onions in plenty of extra virgin olive oil gives this dish an intensely sweet and melting quality – don’t cut it back! Fish is expensive but this dish happily works with any white fish fillets as long as they are nice and thick (though check notes at end of recipe).

Ingredients

• 100ml plus extra 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large onions, peeled and sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 800g waxy ‘salad’ potatoes
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-3 fresh lemon tree leaves, optional (or use makrut lime leaves)
• Finely grated zest 1 lemon (reserve lemon for squeezing)
• 75ml dry white wine
• ½ -1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
• 700g skinned and boned thick white fish fillets
• Flaky sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• Small handful of flat-leaf parsley florets, torn

Method

Choose a large frying pan or gratin pan that can go in the oven. Heat the first measure of oil in in the pan over medium heat, add onions and cook gently for about 12 minutes, until tender; once browning starts, lower the heat. Stir in garlic. Have potatoes peeled or scrubbed if skin is new and loose, and sliced neither too thinly nor too thickly. Add to pan with salt, lemon tree leaves, lemon zest and white wine. Toss gently ensuring the potatoes are coated with oil, then sprinkle with paprika. Bring to a gentle bubble, lower heat, cover pan with a lid and cook gently for about 25 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 210°C. Check fish for scales then cut into large chunks. Bury fish amongst potatoes. Squeeze over juice from lemon and drizzle everything with the remaining two tablespoons of oil. Season with flaky sea salt and a good grinding of black pepper.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until fish is just cooked (depends on the thickness – remove it from oven when it is nearly cooked through, with just a blush of pink, as it will continue cooking as it stands). Scatter generously with parsley and serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

I used the fattest fillets of gurnard I could find (they tend to be quite small in comparison to meaty fillets from fish like snapper) and cooked the dish for just 12 minutes.

Lemon tree leaves are edible — just like the leaves from lime trees.