Spicy Sephardi Baked Fish with Vegetables

February 18, 2003

With a cookbook library of more than 1200 books, it should be easy for me to find inspiration. But there are times when I flick through one after another, looking for something that will tempt the tastebuds. I struck it lucky in a store last weekend when they were discounting all their books by 30 percent and some had been reduced in price already. Yes, I know I need more cookbooks like Imelda Marcos needs more shoes! However, a couple caught my eye and one was an attractive little collection of Jewish Recipes (called just that) published by Murdoch Books, ISBN 0-86411-914-3.

The Spouse was browsing through the book during an ad break on TV and drew my attention to a fish dish, Spicy Sephardi baked fish with vegetables. "That looks interesting,‚" he said hopefully.

And so I found myself in the car heading out to one of my favourite fishmongers yesterday. The recipe called for a whole fish and this place usually has a good supply of them as they are popular with the Polynesian and Asian people who live in the area.

There was a good choice and I grabbed a nice terakihi that looked the right size for two (right). Fortunately it had already been gutted and scaled. I bought an absolute bargain of a whole fish at a market one weekend, only to discover that the scaling and evisceration was my job. I spent an unpleasant half hour putting unspeakable things down the waste disposal unit in the sink. Now I am more observant when I buy whole fish. The most I had to do with the terakihi was chop off a couple of fins.

There are two main strands to Jewish cuisine - Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Ashkenazi refers to Eastern European traditions while Sephardi is food of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Asian origin. I have come across a similar recipe in Moroccan cuisine.

As it's New Zealand Herb Awareness Week, it's good to focus on flavourings. This dish calls for roasted cumin seeds and it is well worth doing them. They just need a little shaking in a non-stick pan over moderate heat. Watch them and don't let them burn. You will soon see when they are ready. A whole root of coriander weighs in at around 55g.

Baking the fish requires a very high heat so I used a disposable aluminium foil roasting pan.

Spicy Sephardi Baked Fish with Vegetables

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
4 cloves garlic
1 small red chilli, roughly chopped
55g fresh coriander leaves, stems and roots, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5kg whole fish such as red snapper, cleaned and scaled
450g new potatoes, sliced
2-3 Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthways then sliced into 1cm pieces
100g green olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup extra olive oil

Dry-fry the cumin seeds in a frying pan over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant. Grind seeds to a fine powder in a mortar (1) or spice grinder.

Put the ground cumin, garlic, chilli, coriander, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor (2) and process to a smooth paste. With the motor running, gradually add the oil.

Using a sharp knife, make 3-4 diagonal incisions through the thickest part on both sides of the fish to ensure even cooking. Rub the spice mixture over the fish (3) cover with plastic wrap and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to very hot 240C (475F). Lay the fish in the center of a large roasting tin and scatter the potato, tomato and olives around the fish (4). Pour 1/4 cup of water and the extra olive oil over the fish and vegetables. Bake, basting often, for 40 minutes or until the fish and vegetables are cooked through (5).

We had it accompanied by peeled zucchini batons and sliced of red pepper briefly microwaved until they were just cooked.

A very tasty dish.

Recipe © Murdoch Books. Pictures Pat Churchill.