Whole Baked Fish Portugaise

Ingredients

• 1.1 whole fish, Stumpenose or kabeljou; size to feed 4–5 people; eyes removed, scaled, dorsal fin and all fins and tail trimmed; washed and patted dry
• 2.salt, to season inside and outside
• 3.black pepper, go easy; to season inside and outside
• 4.8 millilitre seafood spice, heaped teaspoon; to season
• 5.lemon juice, juice of 1 large lemon; to sprinkle over fish
• 6.60 gram butter or margarine, for vegetable mixture
• 7.60 millilitre oil, for vegetable mixture
• 8.1 onion, chopped
• 9.1 green pepper, chopped
• 10.1 celery, diced
• 11.1 tomato, large; ripe; skinned and diced
• 12.2 millilitre celery salt
• 13.15 millilitre soya sauce
• 14.black olives, for decoration — inserted as eyes when serving

Method

1. 1.Have your fishmonger remove the eyes of fish and scrape off all the scales. Remove the dorsal fin and trim all other fins and tail. Wash under running water and pat dry with paper towels.
2. 2.Season inside and outside with the salt, pepper and seafood spice and sprinkle with the lemon juice.
3. 3.Melt the butter and oil together. Add the onion, green pepper and celery. Fry until golden brown. Add the tomato and simmer a few minutes longer. Add the celery salt and the soya sauce.
4. 4.Place half the vegetable mixture on a large sheet of aluminium foil. Place fish on top and cover with remaining vegetable mixture. Fold the foil to cover the fish completely.
5. 5.Place on a baking tray or in a roasting pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) for ¾ of an hour to an hour, depending on the size of the fish.
6. 6.Open the foil halfway through the cooking period to allow the fish to brown.
7. 7.Remove from the oven. Place on a bed of rice and tear the foil away from underneath the fish, allowing the juices to saturate the rice. Insert black olives for eyes and serve.

Notes

• Card note: 'I prefer not to serve the fish on rice. I prefer to put it on a platter and use the juices as a gravy.'
• GUIDE FOR COOKING TIME: Measure around the thickest part of the fish. Cook 10 minutes for each inch, plus 10 minutes over. (1 inch = 2.5 cm.)
• Recipe spans two pages in the original binder, inserted in reverse order — the method continuation (opening foil, serving on rice) appears on the physically earlier page.
• Stumpenose (Rhabdosargus globiceps) is a popular South African coastal fish. Kabeljou = kob/cob.