Friday afternoon on the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
Gilt-head Bream with Pickled Lemons
From the Bible (Nehemiah 3) we learn very accurate, who was involved in the construction of the fish gate in Jerusalem - from the sons of Senaas to the Tekoites. And Zephaniah's (1.10) prophecies that «There will be the sound of a cry from the Fish Gate» - whereas it is unfortunately unknown, what fish were brought through the gate into the city.
The breeding of sea bream, especially in the western Mediterranean area, is so successful that one could almost speak of a miraculous multiplication – similar to what Hektor Maille was dealing with in Jerusalem. A recipe with a Mediterranean swing, that comes from the restaurant «Herzog's» in Port-Louis.
200 g (dripp-off weight) pickled lemon
1 small hot chili, deseeded
6 corns all-spice
1 teaspoon black pepper
5 pods garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 whole gilt-head breams of about 600 gm each, scaled, emptied and well cleaned
1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
1 pinch salt
9 pods garlic, with their skins, slightly crushed
3 branches rosemary
1 lemon, thinly sliced
In landlocked countries to get whole fish can sometimes be difficult or very expensive. You can modify this recipe to filleted fish. The production of the lemon-spread remains the same, but we clearly need less of it for fillets.
We tried the recipe, for example, with 200 gm of cod fillets (without skin) and proceeded as follows: Spread a little bit of salt and pepper in the fillets, place on a piece of aluminum foil. Top coat with some of the preserved lemons paste - not too thick but regular. Put thinly sliced lemon (maybe even half slices) on top and finally a sprig of rosemary. Close foil and place for 7 minutes in the oven, preheated at 180°. Open foil and bake another 5 to 7 minutes openly until the surface has a slightly brownish color. The exact cooking time depends on the nature of the fillets.
Delicate, we also found a version with a 300 gm salmon fillet (skin on), we have cooked 7 minutes at 180° in the closed foil and 7 minutes open. The meat was then still raw in the middle.
When we were slowly running out of pickled lemons, we have added to the paste a good piece of ginger, which we processed with the lemons. The bright hotness of the ginger went very well with the lemon and the result was slightly less acidic than normal.
More about the travel adventure of Secret Agent Hektor Maille:
After a failed metamorphosis, a hungry Hektor Maille traipsed through the streets of Jerusalem, his head full of fishy thoughts, but ended up with only a couple of chickpeas on his plate. We have therefore requested the restaurant «Herzog's» in Port Louis to put together a small fish menu for us:
And also:
First Publication: 24-12-2010
Modifications: 20-6-2011, 16-11-2011, 19-12-2011