What happens when garlic marries butter? Magic! Yes, that aroma when they hit the flames is pure magic. Although these are the simplest of ingredients to add to your Fish but they are the most powerful ones and are better off standing alone and supreme in the crowd.
Garlic and butter are those never-out-of-stock ingredients available in every home which makes this fish recipe accessible to all. Even the amateurs (like me) can ace this stuff with ease and boast off an amazing looking plate as a result.
The sides are totally up to you but what’s a fish with no potatoes on the dish (Did it rhyme?😀 ). Well, my favorite side is potato Wedges and as the white fish is already soft in texture, it doesn’t call for a softer mashed potatoes side. So just make sure that any side that you are serving should have a contrasting texture as to your fish.
This time I went with the dried herb wedges (You can also add Parmesan cheese to it for extra flavor), a crisp lettuce and mixed vegetables. Recipe details followed below.
Yield: 4 persons
Ingredients:
For the fish:
White fish fillets: 4
Garlic paste: 2 teaspoons (1 teaspoon for two fillets ratio)
Butter: 4 tablespoons (2 tablespoons for two fillets ratio)
Salt: to taste
Black pepper, crushed: light sprinkle on each while cooking
For the mixed vegetables:
Asparagus: 8-10
Red bell pepper: 2 large
Yellow bell pepper: 2 large
Button mushrooms: 8-10
Red onion: 1 medium
Green chilies: 2
Fresh coriander: chopped, 2 tablespoons
Oil: 2 tablespoons
Black pepper: 3/4 teaspoon (or to taste)
Salt: to taste
For the potato wedges:
Potatoes: 4 medium
Dried oregano: 1 teaspoon
Dried basil: 1 teaspoon
Salt: to taste
Black pepper: a light sprinkle
Butter: 1 tablespoon
Method:
For the fish:
Heat a pan with 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon garlic paste. As soon as the butter melts, add salt to it and give it a quick stir. Now add 2 fish fillets and cook them until tender by changing sides and lightly sprinkling black pepper on each side.
You can use the fish fillets as whole or half each of them horizontally from the middle as I did. If you have halved the fillets then cook 4 small fillet pieces at a time. This makes it easy to cook the fish on all the sides.
For the mixed vegetables:
Cut the bell peppers, mushrooms and onions lengthwise while cutting the asparagus from the middle to half them if the length is considerably long. About the green chilies, you can cut them in any way you prefer to but do remember that these are supposed to be visible at a glance in order to avoid consumption if you are not able to tolerate that much heat. But don’t skip the chilies as they give a really good flavor.
Now, moderately heat oil in a pan and add all your vegetables at once. Cook them until desired soft texture is reached and add salt, black pepper and coriander at the end of the cooking process. Give it a quick stir and remove from heat.
For the potato wedges:
Boil the potatoes until soft but firm. We don’t want the potatoes to be too soft here as we are not looking forward to mash them so keep checking with a fork while boiling to reach a firm but soft texture.
When the potatoes are boiled, drain the hot water and shock them in cold water. Remove the skin and cut them into wedges (You can also leave the skin as it is if you want to and skip the cold water shock step). One potato should be good for four wedges.
Toss the wedges in a bowl along with butter, herbs, salt, black pepper and mix everything well to ensure that all the wedges are well coated. Now toss everything in a preheated pan over high flame to get a slightly crisped outer side. Remove from heat and serve with the already prepared fish and vegetables, alongside lettuce leaves of your choice. Enjoy the meal!
