Roasted White Fish with a Coriander Crust

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Keyword: fresh fish, frozen fish, hake, kingklip

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 20

Servings:

Liz and I are big fans of Middle Eastern food and my favourite cookbook (by a long shot) is Jerusalem by @ottolenghi and @sami_tamimi - so when a friend shared this Sami Tamimi recipe with me, I knew it would be right up my alley. I also summarily bought his latest book, Falastin, which this recipe is from. I adapted the recipe a bit. He uses cod, but as we can't get it in SA, you can use either hake or kingklip, fresh or frozen. I used frozen (defrosted) kingklip portions.

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Ingredients

olive oil
2 fat garlic cloves
30 g fresh coriander finely chopped
1½ tsp fish spice mix I used Woolies Baharat blend
pinch chilli flakes
2 portions white fish
4 large bay leaves
1 lemon one half cut into very thin slices and the rest quartered, to serve
salt and pepper

Tahini sauce (optional)

150 g tahini
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove crushed
salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 250°C fan.
To make the tahini sauce: Mix together all the ingredients and put aside.
Put a glug of oil into a small saucepan and place on a medium-low heat. Add the crushed garlic and cook for 10 seconds, then add the coriander, fish spice mix, chilli flakes, salt and a grind of black pepper. Cook for 4–5 minutes, stirring frequently, for the garlic to really soften, then remove from the heat.
Place the fish in a baking paper-lined roasting dish, and brush with more olive oil. Season lightly with salt and pepper then spoon the coriander mix on top of each fillet. Spread it out so that the whole top is covered, then top each one with a bay leaf along with 2 slices of lemon. Roast for 7–8 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.
Serve at once, with about a tablespoon of tahini sauce drizzled over, if using, and a wedge of lemon alongside.