Pike-perch in cream sauce with Dijon mustard

Here the fish is not fried or browned before the oven. Raw pieces go into the dish and are covered with hot sauce — from then on they cook in the liquid, so there's simply nowhere for them to dry out.

The sauce is made separately and ahead of time. The onion is cooked in clarified butter until soft, the cream is poured in, mustard and nutmeg are added, and it's brought to a boil — otherwise, in the oven, the cream would curdle before the onion and spices cooked through.

Dijon mustard here isn't for heat. Its acidity keeps the cream from curdling under heat and, at the same time, removes the muddy river taste — the same taste that other pike-perch recipes address with lemon.

Lean pike-perch needs help staying moist, and there are three ways to give it: cream sauce here, a cheese crust baked over the fillet for a firmer finish, or a quick pan-fry with onion when texture matters more than sauce.

Caloric content: 170kcal

Notes

• Use cream that's at least 20% fat. Ten-percent cream separates at 180 °C, and instead of a sauce you get whey with lumps in it.
• Bring the sauce to a boil before the oven. This isn't just being careful: raw cream in the oven heats unevenly at first, and that's exactly when it curdles.
• Add the mustard to hot cream, not cold. In cold cream it breaks into lumps and later rises to the surface in patches.
• The pieces shouldn't be floating. The sauce should come up to about halfway up the fish: submerged completely, it would boil rather than bake.
• Nutmeg — no more than half a teaspoon for the whole dish. It quickly overpowers both the fish and the cream.
• Don't cover the dish. The sauce needs to reduce a little and thicken — under foil it would stay thin.

Questions and answers

Why did the cream sauce curdle?

Most often because the cream was under 20% fat, or because the sauce went into the oven cold. A sauce made from fatty cream and brought to a boil first holds up fine at 180 °C.

Do you need to fry the pike-perch before baking?

Not in this recipe. The fish is covered with hot sauce while raw and cooks in the liquid; there's no need for a crust here — the sauce takes on that role.

How long to bake pike-perch in cream sauce?

30–40 minutes at 180 °C. You can tell it's ready by the sauce: it should thicken and start to brown around the edges of the dish.

What can replace Dijon mustard?

Wholegrain mustard in the same amount, or ordinary table mustard, though you'd use half as much — it's sharper and overpowers the cream. Without any mustard at all, the sauce comes out bland and holds up to the heat less well.

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