Well, bream (Dorade in German) is a very popular fish. It tastes almost identically to trout and like many other fish with the same relatively fat meat makes for a really good rustic dish from oven.

Most recipices recommend cooking this fish wrapped in aluminum  paper to keep in the juice. I actually think it can loose some of the juice in order to feel less fat while still soft and moist.

First time I had bream I was still living in Amsterdam and with a couple of friends and Sanni we went to a restaurant in East Amsterdam. My fish was wrapped in aluminum paper and a lump of mashed potato was also included in the same parcel. Back then I found the food great, but hey, we all grow up in one way or another.

Sometime later I had the same fish in another restaurant in Duesseldorf, except that the fish was grilled on hot stone and was really delicious.

Since then I have worked in using spices in order to improve the outcome further, combining it with an old northern Iranian recipe and South Asian ways of spicing the fish.

I also tend to make all the grilled fish I make on hot stone, which I learned from the way aboriginals in British Columbia cook the salmon traditionally.

The result is a really tasty fish, but I am still working on the look.

Cyrus

Ingredients

• 1 fresh bream.
• fennel seeds 1 tea spoon
• dried chili flakes
• cumin seeds 1/2 tea spoon
• 1/2 tea spoon of coriander seeds
• saffron (some)
• sea salt
• black pepper corn (you can use whatever variation you prefer)
• fresh ginger
• lemon grass
• 2 slices of orange
• orange peal, cut in 50mm x 50mm squares from a whole orange.
• pine nuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• fresh dill
• 2 medium sized potato
• 6 large size cherry tomato
• butter

 

How to make it:

• Crush some of the saffron, pepper, cumin seeds, chili flakes, coriander seeds, and fennel seeds in a mortar until turning into a soft powder.
• Add a small quantity of chopped lemon grass and some ginger and further grind in the mortar with the rest of the spices until turning into spice paste.
• Add some olive oil and mix well, so the spice mix can be used to smear the fish.
• Put orange slices, garlic, the rest of ginger, and some of the dill inside the belly of the fish and sew the fish using medical stitched to close the opening completely in order to keep the juice inside.

• Smear the fish with the spice mix until fully covered.
• In the meantime boil the potato for 30 minutes.
• Put a heavy iron grilling dish inside the oven and heat the oven at 180 degrees using fan assist.
• Brush some olive oil on the oven dish to ensure the food will not stick to it.
• Once the oven is really hot and the grilling dish is sizzling hot put the fish on the stone.
• Remove the potato from the pot, put it in a deep oven dish and cover. Place the potato dish in the oven.
• Cook for 30 minutes.
• 10 minutes before serving the dish put the tomato in the oven.
• At the same time pour a bit of orange juice on the top of the fish. Make sure you use a small amount of orange juice only so it will not drip onto the hot stone. This can make the fish skin soggy.
• Heat the butter on medium high. (I use 7 out of 10. Can start with 8 but reduce the heat later.)
• Once the butter is hot and before it burns, add orange peal, pine nuts, and a little bit of saffron to the hot butter and steer permanently. This will make orange skin chips. Continue frying until the orange is crispy and before it turns brown. The orange skin must remain really orange. This will take 2-3 minutes. (I have used orange zest. Using a zester I have created long strings of orange skin about 5 cm long.)
• Serve the fish and side dishes on a plate.
• Cover the fish with orange chips and garnish with chopped dill.