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Essential Guide to Cooking with Fish

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Techniques for roasting fish

Roasting fish in the oven is best if you’re working with a whole fish or fish on a bone, though
cooking it en papillote (fillet steamed in parchment paper) in the oven is also popular.

Cooking fish in an oven uses dry heat. With this in mind, here are three roasting techniques
you can use:

Roasting whole fish
Cooking a whole fish in the oven means a beautifully crisp skin at the end. To start, make

several slashes along the body not only so that the heat penetrates, but so that seasoning is
infused into the flesh of the fish while it cooks. For an even better result, bake the fish on a
bed of vegetables that can include anything from potatoes and fennel to tomatoes and
peppers. The vegetables don’t just sit pretty: they create a buffer from the direct heat of the
roasting pan, and they soak up the beautiful flavours of the roasting fish so that you end up
with a tasty accompaniment.

If you find the idea of baking whole fish appealing but are a little squeamish about the eyes
clocking you while you eat it, simply lop off the head before you cook it. Besides making it
less creepy to eat, the fish is then easier to fit into a roasting pan and won’t have any effect
on the cooking time. You can also remove the tail and dorsal fin (with a pair of kitchen
scissors) while you’re at it.

Finishing
With the finishing technique, you get the benefits of both frying and roasting. Used for small
whole fish or a cutlet on the bone, the idea with finishing is to give the meat a bit of colour
in the pan on the stovetop, and then finish cooking it in the oven. If you left it in the pan, the

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