Juicy Wild Carp in Foil with Tomatoes

The unusual part here comes at the end. Once the fish is done, the top layer of foil is removed and it goes back into the oven — turned off. Twenty minutes in the fading heat evaporate the water released by the tomatoes and onion, and the dish stops being wet without having time to dry out.

The sour cream, lemon, and garlic marinade does two things at once. Garlic together with the acid removes wild carp's muddy taste, while the sour cream stays on the fish as a film and keeps it from drying out under the foil while the onion and tomatoes release their juice.

It's not worth setting an hour at 200 °C the way the source recommends. For a one-kilogram fish under foil that's already too much — forty-five minutes is enough, and the residual heat does the rest of the work.

The same fish also bakes uncovered in wild carp with lemon and sour cream, baked in the oven — more crust, less juice. Or tuck a side dish under the foil alongside the fish, as in wild carp with potatoes baked under a mayonnaise glaze.

Caloric content: 130kcal

Notes

• Twenty minutes in a turned-off oven is part of the recipe. Not just "letting it rest": the fading heat evaporates the moisture released by the tomatoes, which would otherwise leave the dish wet.
• Forty-five minutes, not an hour. The source gives an hour at 200 °C. For a one-kilogram body under foil that's too much — the fish dries out even before the foil is removed.
• Cut the onion into large rings. Finely cut onion turns to mush under the foil in forty minutes and gets lost in the sauce.
• Put part of the filling inside the belly cavity. Onion rings inside work from the inside out — without them, the center of the body stays bland.
• Under foil, low-fat sour cream runs off. Low-fat sour cream separates under the foil and runs to the bottom, leaving the fish bare.

Questions and Answers

How long to bake wild carp in foil?

Forty-five minutes at 200 °C, then twenty minutes in a turned-off oven with the foil open.

Why leave the fish in a turned-off oven?

To evaporate the water released by the tomatoes and onion. In an oven left on, it would dry out over that same time.

Can I skip the tomatoes?

Yes, then there will be less water and the final stage is cut in half. But it's the tomatoes that give the dish its acidity.

How do I remove the muddy taste?

It's removed by the lemon juice and garlic in the marinade — that's exactly what they're there for, not for aroma.

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