Whole John Dory

Whole baked John Dory is an easy way to have a show piece for dinner and great way to eat more fish, especially because it doesn’t contain many pin bones like most other fish. It’s perfect with served bread, rice and or salad. You could also cook the whole fish on a barbecue flat plate instead of the oven.

Whole John dory Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  15 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 2 kg whole John Dory
• 20 g sea salt flakes
• Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 250 g salted butter, diced
• 60 g baby capers
• 5 g Urfa pepper (see note)
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
• 1 orange, zest finely grated
• 1 lemon, juiced
• bread and salad, to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat a fan forced oven to 220˚C.
2. Wipe down the fish using dry paper towel only and no water. Clean the gut cavity and season with salt. 
3. Place the fish on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with a little oil and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the skin blisters. Take out of the oven and set aside to rest. 
4. While the fish is resting, place the butter in a frying pan over medium high heat and cook until it begins to foam. Remove from the heat, add the capers, Urfa pepper, parsley, orange zest and lemon juice and stir to combine well. 
5. Place the fish on a serving plate and pour over the foaming butter sauce.

Note

•Urfa pepper are dark red, almost black dried chilli flakes hailing from the same region of Turkey as Aleppo chilli flakes. It is prized for its fruity, warm and mild chilli flavour. Available from specialist food stores or online.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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Watch The Full Episode Here

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Watch The Full Episode Here

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