blogChef Carl Moller’s Baked Hake

This is a perfect dinner party main course, quite a few of the elements can be pre prepared making plating up a breeze, plating up steps shown step by step too. Hake is on the Sassi green list and is quite an under rated table fish.

Roasted Tomato Peri Peri

3 medium sized ripe tomatoes
1 clove crushed garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 pinches salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

1. Cut the tomatoes into wedges – 8 wedges per tomato
2. Mix the remaining ingredients well with the tomatoes and roast at 180-200 degrees
   for 1 hour. The tomatoes and cauliflower can roast at the same time, in separate
   trays
3. Tomatoes should be very well cooked and starting to caramelize
4. Once the tomatoes are cooked, place in a jug and blend well with a stick blender, or
   in a jug blender.

Masala Cauliflower

1 medium sized head of cauliflower
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon medium masala (I used leaf masala)
1 clove crushed garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Prepare the cauliflower, cut each floret into either 2 or 4 pieces, depending on their size to start off with
2. Mix the remaining ingredients together and toss well with the cauliflower, the cauliflower should be well coated
3. Place into a large oven tray and roast along with the tomatoes for 1 hour at 180-200 degrees, turning every 15 minutes so the cauliflower is nicely browned on all sides

Butterbean & Lemon Hummus

1 tin butterbeans, rinsed and drained
2 pinches salt
Zest and juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon tahini
2 tablespoons boiling water

1. Place all ingredients into a small jug and blend well with a stick blender, a jug blender may be a bit difficult to use to blend this

Hake Marinade

Each portion should be around 160 to 170g, remove the skin carefully with a sharp knife.

Zest and Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
2 good pinches of salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Place all the ingredients into a bowl, mix well and Marinade the fish 15 minutes prior to cooking.

Cooking the fish & green beans and plating up

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees
Once all the above prep has been done, place the fish portions onto an oven tray and cook for 11 to 12 minutes at 200 degrees till just cooked. It is important to remove the fish from the tray as soon as it has cooked to ensure the fish does not carry on cooking from the hot tray. Blanch the green beans in boiling salted water till just cooked and still are vibrant green, start cooking the beans once the fish has gone in while the fish is in the oven cooking, start plating up as per pictures, Butterbean hummus should be served at room temperature and the peri peri sauce can be warmed in a small sauce pan. Cauliflower must be warmed through to serve.