Pike-Perch Baked with Mayonnaise and Garlic
Pike-perch is lean, and mayonnaise here does the job of the missing fat — it keeps the pieces moist through all forty minutes in the oven. But two hundred and fifty grams for one fish, as in the source recipe, is twice what's needed: one hundred and twenty grams cover the pieces fully, and the rest just drips down to the bottom of the dish.
The garlic is mashed into the mayonnaise, not put on the fish. Dropped in as pieces, it burns and turns bitter in the oven; stirred into the sauce, it spreads evenly and stays mild.
The pike-perch here is cut into pieces, and the membranes from the belly cavity are removed along with the bones. That's the black membrane that causes bitterness, and it's exactly why baked pike-perch sometimes comes out with a taste that isn't in the recipe.
Mayonnaise here acts as a cap that keeps the fish from drying out. The same job goes to a vegetable cushion in pike-perch baked in the oven with vegetables and to a cheese cap in wels catfish fillet under mushrooms and cheese, oven-baked.
Caloric content: 185kcal
Prepare the ingredients
Prepare the fish
Season
Prepare the garlic
Mix the sauce
Bake
Serve
Notes
- You need half the mayonnaise. One hundred and twenty grams per kilogram of fish covers the pieces fully. Two hundred and fifty, as in the source, will just run off into the dish.
- Remove the black membranes. They're bitter, and in the oven that bitterness passes into the meat.
- Mash the garlic into the sauce. As pieces it burns on top; in the mayonnaise it spreads evenly.
- Add the lemon to the fish before the sauce, not after. Acid on already-coated fish washes the sauce off the pieces.
- Don't cover the dish. Under foil the mayonnaise doesn't brown, and the dish comes out pale.
Questions and Answers
How long to bake pike-perch with mayonnaise?
Forty minutes at 180 °C for pieces about three centimeters thick.
How much mayonnaise is needed?
About one hundred and twenty grams per kilogram of fish. Two hundred and fifty, as in the source, is twice what's needed.
What can replace mayonnaise?
Sour cream at 20% with the same garlic. The flavor will be milder and the color lighter.
Where does the bitterness in baked pike-perch come from?
From the black membranes in the belly cavity. They're removed together with the bones when cleaning the fish.
Recipe and step-by-step photos — kolizhanka.net.ua.
