Baking Fish

Fish Suitable

Snapper, Salmon, small (but legal) Mulloway, large King George Whiting

Cooking Utensils

Oven or Weber preheated @ 170°C/325°F

Cooking Time

40-50 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 Fish !
• 1 White Onion - sliced or diced
• 4 Bacon Rashes
• 1 Yellow Lemon - sliced
• 1 Herbed Butter Mix

The most common method, and my favourite of cooking fish is by baking. This can be done whether it be in the oven, or the weber barbecue. The important thing to remember is to make sure that the fish does not dry out, so make sure you put the fish into a preheated oven or weber to about 170°C/325°F and either wrap the fish in foil, bake it in a sauce or stuff it with a moist buttery mixture. I prefer the latter.

The easiest way to make a "herbed" butter mix is to first microwave some butter so that it becomes more syrupy than solid. If you don't have a microwave, use a frying pan on low heat and do not let the butter fry. The object here is to just make the butter more viscous. Add your herbs and spices, salt and pepper, mix it all up, then place it into a container, then into the fridge for about 90 minutes.

When you are ready to bake, just paste some butter mix inside the fish, as well as on top. Leave the head and tail on the fish. The fish looks better when baked whole and it does retain more moisture. Stuff the fish with sliced lemon, sliced onions and strips of bacon meat. Cut off the strips of fat from the bacon and lay them of top, then wrap the whole fish in alfoil.

When baking whole fish, some people prefer not to scale their fish, so that when cooked, the skin comes off easier and whole. I prefer to scale my fish prior to baking. Basically it boils down to personal preference.

The above cooking method works great with Snapper, big King George Whiting, Mulloway and especially Salmon. Salmon can be a bland tasting fish to eat so it needs all the help it can get.