Alaska Pollock Baked in Foil with Vegetables and Cheese

Alaska pollock is a dry and bland fish, and this whole recipe is built around that fact. First ten minutes in water with citric acid, then a layer of onion and carrot on top, sour cream and cheese over them, and all of it under foil. Every step here adds the moisture the fish doesn't have of its own.

The foil isn't about an easier cleanup, although it is about that too. A covered dish keeps the steam inside, and an hour at 190 °C works on Alaska pollock as braising rather than drying. Uncovered, in the same time it turns stringy.

The acid in the marinade works on the onion as well: it is covered with the rest of the solution for five minutes, and the harshness goes. Without this, raw onion under sour cream stays sharp even after an hour in the oven.

Here the foil holds moisture around a fish that has none of its own; in baked pink salmon with potatoes in foil it seals each portion together with its side dish. The reverse problem, too much liquid rather than too little, is met without foil at all, by breadcrumbs underneath that take the excess away: baked Baltic herring with onion under sour cream.

Caloric content: 132kcal

Notes

• Line with foil generously. Half of it should hang over the dish — the dish is covered with it later, and there will be no seam on top.
• A lemon will do instead of citric acid. It is the same acid, only with juice; adjust the proportion to taste.
• The pollock is marinated in a deep bowl. In the baking dish you can't mix it with your hands, and the seasoning has to reach every piece.
• Don't change the order of the layers. Fish at the bottom, vegetables on top: the juice from the onion and carrot has to run down onto the fish, not into the dish.
• The cheese goes on under the foil. The crust has time to form even covered — while uncovered cheese would burn in an hour.
• At the end press the dish down lightly with a fork. That way the vegetables soak up the fish juices that have collected at the bottom.

Questions and Answers

Why does Alaska pollock dry out in the oven?

It is dry and bland in itself. That is why the whole recipe is built around moisture: a marinade with citric acid, a layer of onion and carrot on top of the fish, sour cream and cheese over them — and all of it under foil.

Can it be baked without foil?

Then an hour at 190 °C will make the fish stringy. A covered dish keeps the steam inside, and for Alaska pollock that is braising rather than drying.

Why soak the onion in citric acid?

So that the harshness goes. Raw onion under sour cream stays sharp even after an hour in the oven.

What can replace citric acid?

Lemon juice — it is the same acid, only with juice; adjust the proportion to taste.

Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.