the golden one is one of our favorite fish. Its white and soft meat together with its nutritional properties, it has a low caloric intake, and its affordable cost make the sea bream highly appreciated throughout our country. Although the ideal season to buy it is autumn, its cultivation in fish farms is so widespread that it is not uncommon to see it always present on the counters of fishmongers.
It is a very grateful fish when it comes to cooking it, its slightly fleshy meat withstands steaming, grilling or baking. This last cooking technique is the one we are going to explore with five ideas to cook it and succeed.
Perhaps the most popular way of cooking Golden baked either with salt, but we can also bake it en papillote, as is, accompanied by vegetables and much more, even adding a squeeze of lemon or serving it open or without anything.
Thanks to this facility, other recipes such as baked sea bass, baked sole, baked hake or baked cod could inspire us.
Sea bream in salt
Mix the salt with the aromatic herbs and the egg white until obtaining a homogeneous and slightly moist mass. Spread a little less than half of the salt mixture on the oven tray and place the sea bream on top. Cover with the rest of the salt and compact well around the sea bream so that nothing is left in the air. Cook in a preheated oven at 200 ºC for about 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the salt crust and serve the well-cleaned loins. We can water them with a little extra virgin olive oil to give them a touch of flavor (optional).
Marseillaise gilthead bream
Ingredients for two servings: 2 sea bream, clean and open, or 4 sea bream fillets, 1 red onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2-3 tomatoes, 1 tablespoon capers, 2 anchovy fillets, 1 tablespoon pitted black olives, 1/2 lemon, 1 glass of white wine, oregano, parsley, salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil.
Elaboration: Preheat the oven to 200ºC and grease a baking dish with oil. Cut the onion into fine julienne strips and arrange at the bottom of the dish. Chop the garlic clove with the anchovies and add them. Cut the tomatoes into thick slices and place them on the onion as well. Season and add a little oregano. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the onion begins to be tender. Season the sea breams and place them on top of the vegetables. Drizzle with the lemon juice, the white wine and spread over the capers and sliced olives. Bake for another 10 minutes and serve with oregano and parsley.
Link | Marseillaise gilthead bream
Sea bream stuffed with mushrooms
Ingredients for 4 people: 1 sea bream, 400 g of assorted mushrooms, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, cherry tomato for garnish, potato for garnish.
Elaboration: Today’s recipe is ideal for celebrations and family gatherings because its flavor is delicate and surprising. At the same time, it is economical since it can be made using canned mushrooms and these Crianza fish from our seas that cost much less than the wild ones, and being a stuffed fish, it goes a long way. We ask the fishmonger to remove the backs of a sea bream, -or to open it for us like a book and remove the bones-. We salt and reserve. Cut the largest mushrooms into pieces and sauté them in a pan with three tablespoons of olive oil and a finely chopped clove of garlic. We booked. On the oven tray, lightly brushed with the mushroom oil so that the fish does not stick to us, place one of the sea bream fillets with the skin down. We cover it with the mushrooms, trying to occupy the entire surface and cover it with the other loin of sea bream. Bake for 15 minutes -more or less depending on the size of your bream- at 180ºC with heat up and down. Turn off the oven and let it rest inside another three or four minutes so that the heat is well distributed throughout the sea bream. We serve with the chosen garnish.
Link to recipe | Sea bream stuffed with mushrooms
Donostiarra-style gilthead bream
Ingredients for four people: 4 open portion giltheads in one piece, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 dried chilli pepper, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, salt and white wine vinegar.
Elaboration: Season the giltheads, heat a griddle or frying pan and grease with a little oil. We mark the sea bream for five minutes with the skin facing up. Grease a baking sheet and place the giltheads on it skin side down. Place in the oven, preheated to 200º C, for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the garlic, fillet it and put it in a frying pan with 100 ml of oil and the chili cut into strips. We fry taking care that the garlic does not burn. Take the tray out of the oven, bathe the sea bass with a splash of vinegar, and spread the contents of the pan on top, with the garlic, oil and chilli rings. If there was any juice left on the baking tray, add it too. Decorate with a few parsley leaves and serve.
Baked bream with potatoes
Ingredients for two people: 1 500 g sea bream, 2 potatoes, 10 French onions, 1 clove of garlic, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 chilli pepper, salt and extra virgin olive oil.
Elaboration: Heat plenty of oil in a frying pan. Peel and cut the potatoes into bakery slices, fry them lightly without browning them and remove them to a plate lined with absorbent paper. We lower the heat, keep it very low and cook the French onions, almost as if they were candied, for 15 minutes. Drain and also remove to a plate. We heat the oven to 180º with heat from top to bottom without air. In a baking dish we put the potatoes and onions as a base and on these the open sea bream, which we will have previously salted. Add a little olive oil and bake for about 20 minutes or until the gilthead is ready, depending on the size. Apart in a frying pan brown a clove of garlic rolled with the chilli, remove and pour the lemon juice. As soon as we take the sea bream out of the oven, sprinkle with this sauce and serve immediately. The refried food must be very hot so that it does not cool the fish, so do it more or less at the same time, when the sea bream comes out of the oven juicy.
Link to recipe | Baked bream with potatoes
Pyrex OPTIMUM – Rectangular dish, 31 x 20 cm
Dorada on the back
Ingredients: 2 sea bream, 3 cloves of garlic, a few sprigs of fresh parsley, salt, juice of half a lemon and extra virgin olive oil
Elaboration: We will ask the fishmonger to prepare the sea bream for us to grill, cutting them in half but without separating the two loins. Wash the giltheads and dry them well. Grease a baking dish and place the giltheads on top, skin side down. Peel and chop the garlic, pass it through the mortar together with some fresh parsley leaves and a pinch of coarse salt. Add a little oil to the mashed and lemon juice. Mix and pour over the giltheads. Bake in a preheated oven at 180º C for about 15 minutes. Remove and serve with a side of vegetables, salad, potatoes or similar.
Pictures | Jon Shave and Tamorlan at Wikimedia Commons
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