Summer
Fish Baked with Dijon Dill Pretzel Crust
- Serves 6
Author Notes
A simple Scandinavian dish with mild flavors. This pairs nicely with some roasted turnips and radishes. The roasting process will tame those bitter tones of these roots and leave you with a juicy, peppery side dish. The fish works great as a left over for breakfast too; just add a poached egg on top!
I love getting summertime texts from my coworker: “Just caught this. Want some? Bring your cooler.” If you remember from my last bass post, my colleague and I have a great fish trade going. He brings striped bass to work, and I bring in shellfish. It’s a day in the life of a Cape Coder.
This time I set out to get the measurements right on a Scandinavian dish I use often. The dill and Dijon are subtle but flavorful, and keep the dish light. You can really use this with any fish that will hold up in the oven, like scrod, cod, or haddock. This week I made this recipe with my gifted striped bass, and then again with cod since I had leftover pretzels and Dijon sauce.
As for the turnips and radishes, I have a CSA with Coonamessett Farm. Neither of these vegetables are common in my kitchen, and I usually find radishes to be too bitter. I’m glad I gave roasting them a try! The flavor profile changes and becomes mild and peppery. Now I’m hoping I’ll get more of these in my next farm share pick up next week.
If you choose to make a bunch of the filets, but aren’t going to eat them right away, just cover them and put them in the fridge without baking them. They’ll keep for 3 days. Throughout this week I would put one in the oven in the morning as I got ready for work, topped with a poached egg for a pleasing breakfast! —Just Me and The Clams
Ingredients
-
2 pounds
bass, cod, or other semi-soft filets
-
1/4 cup
dijon mustard
-
1/4 cup
sour cream
-
4 tablespoons
olive oil
-
2 tablespoons
dill, chopped
-
2 cups
pretzels
-
1 pound
tournips
-
1 pound
radishes
-
1 tablespoon
rosemary, chopped
Directions
- Place one oven rack towards the top 4th of the oven, and the other at about half height. Then preheat the oven to 375F.
- Chop your turnips and radishes into 1 square inch pieces. Place them on a baking sheet, and add the rosemary and first 2 tbsp of oil. Toss to combine. Place this sheet on the top shelf of your oven right away. These take about a half hour to roast, so if you prepare your fish within the next ten minutes and put them in, everything will come out ready to be served at the same time.
- If you have a large filet to work with cut it into your serving portions. Try your best to get these to similar sizes, taking thickness into account, so that they bake evenly together.
- Mix the Dijon, sour cream, and remaining 2 tbsp of oil in a shallow boil big enough for one of your pieces of fish.
- If you have a food processor, blend the pretzels until they are fine. If you don’t have one, just smash them as best as you can in a bag. Place these in another shallow dish.
- Dip the filets in the Dijon sauce on both sides. Then dip the top of your filet (not the skin side if your fish has skin) into the pretzels. Place the filets onto another baking sheet, the side without pretzels down. I’ve found that the fish cooks more evenly if the pretzels aren’t on the side touching the pan. Put the sheet on the lower rack and bake for 20 minutes.
- Save the left over Dijon sauce so that you can serve a dab of it with each plate when everything comes out of the oven.
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