Zander is an appetizing and convenient fish for cooking. It has few bones, and its meat is very tender and dense, so it is ideal for a wide variety of ingredients - various spices, vegetables, wine. You can bake zander in the oven in foil pieces. This option is the most healthy, and a few interesting nuances will help make the finished dish unique.
How tasty bake zander in the oven slices
There are lots of ways to bake this delicious fish in the oven to make an excellent dish. Zander can be chopped or baked whole, including its head. Usually, it is cooked, fried or allowed to be cooked before such cooking, it all depends on what density you want in the finished fish. When choosing various condiments and complementary components, one must take into account that the pike perch flesh is considered to be lean and somewhat dry. In order for it not to dry out completely, fish that weighs more than a kilogram must be cut into equal parts. So the flesh is equally baked.
Too dry will not work just stuffed fish baked in the oven, because the juicy filling will be laid in the inside. And if you add also the sauce, then the prepared zander will turn out as juicy as possible. In order for the pikeperch to bake in an accelerated mode, it can be wrapped in foil or a culinary sleeve. Also, the same effect can be achieved by covering the fish with a regular dough. The pike perch baked in it turns out to be very appetizing, and the dough will suit the most varied, even purchased in a store. The cook can only make a decision: bake in foil, dough or sleeve.
Next - recipes for pike perch, baked in the oven in slices, and a photo of dishes.
Choosing the Right Zander
To cook any dish deliciously, you need to follow the most important rule - to buy high-quality and fresh products. The same rule must be followed when choosing a fish. There are several criteria based on which you need to choose in a zander store:
- Fresh fish almost does not smell.
- If you click on the fish side, then the dent should quickly return to its previous state.
- Fish eyes should be clean and transparent. The fish is stale if the pupils in the eyes roll up and the eyes themselves are cloudy.
How to clean and cut fish
Before you cook the pike perch, baked in the oven in pieces, it must be cleaned and cut. Do not be afraid of pricking fins and medium-sized scales, because, if everything is done correctly, these moments can be easily eliminated. You need to clear the zander following these rules:
- Place it for some time in slightly salted hot water, hold there for just a couple of minutes, then another as much, but under cool water.
- Freshly peeled lemon rub the fish and the surface where it will be.
- A cleaning device made of a plastic bottle can be attached to the cleaning device. This will help to ensure that the scales do not fly in all directions.
- After the scales are removed with a knife or a special device, the fins can be removed using the most common scissors.
When the zander is cleaned, it must be properly cut. This is a predatory fish. Therefore, its internal structure is such that the gall bladder and liver are located near the head. Try not to accidentally pierce them, because after that the finished fish is unlikely to be appetizing. Butchering perch in this way:
- With a well-sharpened knife, we make an incision along the abdomen from the beginning of the head in the middle between the fins. Do not stick a knife deep.
- We remove the gall bladder and gills.
- If you plan to use a fish head, you need to clean it from the inside, remove the dark film from the belly.
- Wash the fish thoroughly under running cool water.
Pike perch baked in the oven with slices of vegetables
Fish prepared in this way is very rich in taste. It can be baked in a single piece, but it is still convenient to divide the knife into pieces in advance. Then the pike perch is baked faster and better saturated with sauce and spices.
To prepare zander, baked in pieces in the oven, you need to prepare the following:
- pike perch - 1 kg,
- carrots (large) - 1 pc.,
- onion - 1 pc.,
- Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.,
- flour - 2 tbsp. l.,
- tomatoes (large) - 2 pcs.,
- lemon juice - 1 tbsp. l.,
- garlic cloves - 2 pcs.,
- rast. oil - for frying,
- bay leaf, freshly ground black pepper, salt to taste.
How to cook
Consider how to cook zander baked in the oven using this recipe.
- Wash the pike perch well, dry with a paper towel or towel, cut into pieces and sprinkle a little with lemon juice. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and seasonings, roll the fish parts in the resulting mixture and fry them in oil, which must first be heated. We put the fish in a bowl or other deep dishes and cover with any lid so that the heat does not come out.
- Peel and chop the onion and garlic cloves, chop the insides from the pepper, cut into thin slices. Rub carrots with a grater. In another skillet, fry the chopped onions until it becomes transparent, add carrots and chopped garlic. Cook, not forgetting to stir, about 5-8 minutes. Tomatoes need to be treated with boiling water, peeled from the skin, seeds removed, then finely chopped. We put in the pan sweet pepper, tomatoes, bay leaf. Salt and stew everything in a pan for a few more minutes.
- Lubricate the baking dish with vegetable oil, put the cooked vegetables, place the pieces of fish on top. We cover the form with a sheet of foil and an oven in an oven that needs to be heated to 180 degrees. We cook the prepared zander, baked in the oven with slices of vegetables, on plates that need to be preheated, sprinkle with ground pepper and herbs. Delicious white bread or tortillas are also suitable for this dish.
Baked pike perch with potatoes
To cook a complete meal in one fell swoop, you can use the recipe for zander, baked in the oven with slices of potatoes. The potato goes well with fish as a side dish. How can I cook such a dish? A common option is to bake chopped fish in foil or culinary sleeve, simply by putting potatoes to the fish. The fish will come out very fragrant. It can also be baked, topped with potatoes and, for example, tomatoes and cheese.
Ingredients
To prepare pike perch baked in the oven in this way, you will need:
- sour cream - 500 g,
- salt, spices to taste,
- onion - 1 pc.,
- zander - 0.6 kg
- soy sauce - 1 tbsp. l.,
- potatoes - 7 pcs.,
- rast. oil - to lubricate
- Parmesan - 120 g;
- tomatoes - 3 pcs.
How to cook a dish
- Wash the pike perch thoroughly, cut into separate servings, place in a bowl, pour soy sauce and let it brew.
- While the fish is in the marinade, take a baking dish, grease with oil. Then, in separate layers, lay out the first potato slices, then chopped the onion into large pieces, then spread the tomato slices. Do not forget to coat each layer with sour cream.
- We put the fish on top of all the other ingredients. Then we coat with sour cream again, and then sprinkle with cheese, crushed with a grater.
- Place the baking dish in the oven, heated to 180 degrees, and bake for about 70-80 minutes.
Pikeperch roasting tips
There are many simple secrets how to bake pikeperch in the oven in a whole piece or previously sliced in portions.
- In order to easily remove completely the scales, you need to pour zander on boiling water. Then the fish is much easier to clean.
- A variety of spices can be used in the baking process: for example, Provence herbs, sage, rosemary.
- Before cooking, it is advisable to carefully heat the oven.
- If foil is used in baking, it needs to be slightly expanded, about 10-15 minutes before cooking is completed. This is necessary so that the fish did not taste fresh, as if boiled, but had a beautiful golden crust and a pleasant taste.
- It is important to control the temperature. You can not install it more than 220 degrees. At the right temperature level, pike perch is better prepared.
- For cooking, you can use a variety of types of sauces. When fish need to be steamed, you can use thick sauces, but when baking raw zander, it is better to use more liquid options.
- For baking, the ideal option is fresh raw fish carcass. When preparing frozen fish, it is best to wait until it defrosts naturally. Zander is placed in the lower part of the refrigerator, covered with cling film or cellophane, so that moisture does not evaporate. Then after 2-3 hours it needs to be thawed out of the refrigerator. With this defrosting technique, the palatability of the pike perch will not be lost.
- Pike perch baked in the oven with cheese slices is very tasty. Before sending the fish to the preheated oven, it is sprinkled with grated cheese on top.
Baked pike perch in sour cream
If a suitable recipe for cooking fish in the oven has not yet been found, then perhaps you will have to taste zander prepared with the addition of sour cream. This ingredient will make the fish especially tasty, because its fillet is saturated with tenderness, juiciness and a pleasant aroma. With all these qualities, pike perch retains its fullness and nutrition. Appetizing notes of sour cream sauce can also be added by adding cottage cheese.
For cooking you will need:
- lemon juice - 3 tbsp. l.,
- mayonnaise - 3 tbsp. l.,
- sour cream - 0.5 l
- zander fillet - 1 pc. (about a kilogram)
- salt and spices to taste,
- onions - 1 pc.
How to cook:
- We clean the pike perch, remove the insides, cut into large portioned parts.
- Salt and pepper fish pieces, pour over lemon juice. We spread the obtained pieces of fish on a baking sheet or in a baking dish.
- Peel and chop the onion, mix with sour cream and mayonnaise, pepper and salt.
- The resulting sour cream sauce water the fish. We send it to the oven, which we preheat to 200 degrees. When the sour cream sauce begins to boil, lower the temperature to 180 degrees.