Salt baked fish filled with parsley and other wonderful Maltese Mediterranean ingredients. For Ash Wednesday!
I first tried fish baked in salt in Malta. It was at a beautiful restaurant in Bugibba overlooking the sea. The waiter was serving a large fish on a trolley to other customers and gave us a piece to try. It was one of the best baked fish I had ever tried. The flesh was perfect. I think it is more of a Mediterranean way of cooking fish and not necessarily Maltese but I have stuffed the fish with my usual filling I used and that is uniquely Maltese. The lemon also flavours the fish beautifully.
Sea bass was used for this recipe but any whole fish suitable for baking can be used.
- 700 gram bass or bream (or any other whole fish suitable for baking)
- 1 bunch of parsley chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 8 olives chopped
- 2 tablespoon capers
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- 1 whole lemon sliced
- 2 kg coarse sea salt
- Olive oil
- Black pepper
- Preheat oven to highest temperature (about 230oC).
- In a bowl mix the parsley, garlic, capers, olives, lemon juice. Add in a drizzle of olive oil and season with pepper.
- Take your fish and stuff with the parsley mixture.
- In a large baking dish place a layer of coarse sea salt.
- Spread the lemon slices on top (leave 3 slices for the top of the fish).
- Place the fish on top of the lemon slices.
- Drizzle some olive oil and season with pepper.
- Cover the fish with the remaining salt so that it is completely covered.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove and serve with steamed vegetables and potatoes.