Oven baked whole Bonito (Palamud)

The catch of Palamud /Bonito this year is good and easy to buy fresh on the market. Enjoy it in this easy and fast recipe.

The meat of the palamud is like tuna and mackerel, and its size is intermediate between the two.

The palamud / bonito weighs about 1 kilogram. Most often it is prepared on the grill.

The easiest and quickest thing to prepare fish is by baking it whole in the oven. Especially in winter, when going outside is not the most pleasant experience.

Cooking in an oven

When the fish is baked in the oven, the meat remains juicy. Moreover, cooking in this way is easy for a quick dinner during the week and is impressive enough for occasions and festive dinners.

Cooking whole fish

First you need to decide and choose the fish you will bake. Choose fish that is fresh. Then clean it and prepare for baking.

Fresh fish

Buy the freshest fish you can find. How to find out that the fish is fresh:

• The eyes should be clear and not cloudy. The older the fish, the cloudy the whole eye becomes.
• Gill color – Gills should be bright red/orange, not brown. Lift the gills and check.
• Smell –It should have a pure sea smell, not a fishy smell.
• Touch – Press gently with your finger. The meat should be firm to the touch. If it remains a notch, the fish is not fresh.

Prepare the fish

The fish should be cleaned before cooking.

1. Evisceration – cut the underside-abdomen and remove the insides. Ideally, this should be done as soon as possible after catching the fish. The reason is that the fish’s organs break down quickly.
2. Remove the scales – There are tools that facilitate this work, but you can also use the back of the kitchen knife; quickly rubbing it against the direction of the scales.
3. Clean, dry the fish with paper napkins.

How big fish to buy?

400 grams of the total weight of fish is a portion per person. From one whole fish you will get about 40-50% meat. The rest are guts, bones, head. Thus, for 800 grams of whole fish, we calculate: 800g x 40% = 320g of fish meat, minimum. For two people, that’s 160g per person.

Size of the whole fish for baking

Weight of 600 g up to about 2kg of fish is a good size for baking. A smaller size means that the fish will bake quickly and will not be in the oven long enough to develop good taste. With larger fish, it will be difficult to bake evenly.  It’s going to burn outside, and it’s going to be raw inside.

For 4 people: use 2 x 800g fish or 1 x 1.6kg of fish. If you are baking 2-3 fishes, choose fish that are very close in size.

Fish for baking:

Sea bass, palamud, trout (river), Salmon (small), Cod, European bass, Gilt-head bream

The products you need:

To bake a whole fish you only need salt, pepper, and olive oil. If you have good fish, the taste and juiciness of the meat are all you need, plus a little lemon juice!

However, the empty intestinal cavity of the fish is an ideal opportunity to add flavor by filling it with some fresh aromatic products such as garlic, lemon, parsley, and dill – a very classic combination for whole baked fish.

The fish sauce

Make a simple sauce of garlic, parsley, dill, and butter, which is superb for a whole roasted fish. You just can’t go wrong with this one! Dill is probably the most classic choice for fish.

If desired, you can make butter sauce (Beurre noisette), Salsa verde, Hollandaise sauce, Romesko sauce.