Baked Fish with Lemon & Caper Crust

• Serves 8

• Preparation time: 15

• Cooking time: 60

Ingredients

1.5–2 kg firm-flesh fish, whole or 8 fillets (such as snapper)
1 lemon, juiced
oil spray
1 red onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 potatoes, peeled, cut into even chunks
12 cherry tomatoes
1 cup black olives, pitted
chopped flat leaf parsley

Topping
1 cup coarse sourdough breadcrumbs
3 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tbs capers
1 lemon, zested

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Scale, gut and clean the fish if necessary. Rinse and wipe dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with lemon juice and season inside and out. Make 2–3 slashes through the fish to ensure it cooks evenly (when using whole fish only). Spray a large ovenproof dish with oil, lay the fish inside then set aside.

Heat a frying pan sprayed with oil over low–medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until softened. Remove onion and garlic from pan and set aside. Place potatoes in same pan, spray with oil and cook over medium–high heat for 5 minutes or until well browned. Return onion and garlic to pan and mix well to combine. Transfer potato mixture to the ovenproof dish and place around the fish. Scatter with cherry tomatoes
and olives. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the topping, spray a frying pan lightly with oil and cook the breadcrumbs, tossing often to prevent burning. Transfer to a bowl. Add parsley, capers and zest and stir to combine.

Once the fish has cooked, remove foil to sprinkle with crust topping and return to the oven, uncovered, for a further 5–10 minutes or until topping is golden and crunchy and the fish is just cooked. (The fish should flake easily when tested with a fork in the thickest part.)

Serve straight from dish, sprinkled with parsley.

Notes

On behalf of Julie White, Giaan Rooney and Barbara Macciolli, we hope you enjoy the book and wishing you happy and healthy cooking!

Weigh It Up Winter Warmers Recipe Book Available in Newsagents or online at www.weighitup.com.au