Baked Chili Barramundi
This sounds real good, you will know Barramundi as Giant Sea Perch, buy them whole and fillet yourself skin on, very easy. The fillet is baked in parchment paper to essentially steam the fish. On my to cook list. Plate size Barramundi are the common size sold in Tesco, figure 1 fish for 2 people, this recipe is listed as 2 servings. This recipe will also step you through the filleting steps as well.
Equipment
- Oven
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Sheet
Ingredients
- 1 whole Barramundi, these are called Giant Sea Perch in Tesco
- chili paste, mild or hot is up to you
- red bell pepper, cut into rings
- yellow bell pepper, cut into rings
- salt and pepper, to taste
- spring onions, chopped, for garnish
- parchment paper
Instructions
- First you need to get a Barramundi, these are commonly sold at Tesco but labeled as Giant Sea Perch.
- Next thing you need to do is scale the fish. Grab a large spoon, and best to head outside for this part as it is messy. Using your spoon, start at the tail end work towards the head end, scrape the scales off, only takes a few minutes, scale the whole fish.
- One your fish is scaled, now you need to fillet it. Using a narrow knife, cut just behind the gill plate then turn the knife 90 degrees so the edge is headed towards the tail, then cut along the back bone to the tail and you have one fillet. Turn the fish over and repeat this. Now you have your two fillets but you have rib bones to remove, you can either scrape them out to leave just a tiny bit of meat or just cut the rib section out, easy! There is no pin bones. Yes, you can eat the skin. This photo is two fillets, skin on, no ribs, ready for cooking.
- After filleting the fish, rinse it under the tap. Now feel the skin side and remove stray scales that did not come off with the spoon. This is important as biting into scale is a real appetizer killer. Take each fillet and cut in half so you have two large pieces from each fillet, this reduces the chance of the fillet breaking when you serve.
- Preheat your oven to 200° C (400° F), get out a baking sheet.
- Slice up some of the bell pepper into rings and then lay out some parchment paper, use one sheet per fillet (two pieces). On one side of each paper, place the two pieces from one fillet, skin side down, season with salt and pepper to your liking then spread on some chili paste, how much you want to use is up to you. After the paste, lay some bell pepper over each piece of fish, alternating red and yellow. Then fold the paper over the pieces and fold the edges together to seal the fillet in a pouch. Gently place this on a baking sheet and repeat for the other pieces.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, remove from the oven and open one packet to check doneness, fish should easily flake with a fork. Open the packets and gently lift the fillet pieces out with a spatula and plate. Serve with rice or potato salad or even fried potatoes and a vegetable.
Notes
Barramundi costs around 96 Baht, this is per fish, not per kilo, the price fluctuates as well. For 2 servings from one fish, this is about $1.41 per serving, overall not bad for an excellent tasting fish, and a quickly assembled meal.