Whole baked mulloway

Name: Whole baked mulloway
Cook time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2 x 2kg whole mulloway, scaled, gills, guts and fins removed; 1 lemon, thinly sliced; 2 fennel tops (reserved from the roast vegetable recipe); Extra virgin olive oil; Sea salt; Freshly ground white pepper

Jeremy and Jane Strode

October 18, 2011

Time:1-2 hours

Mulloway has become the official name for jewfish because we now have a system of standardised terms. During my years in Melbourne people grew tired of me whingeing about blue-eye cod not being given its correct name of blue-eye trevella. My fish supplier, Ian Lind of Fishybiz, recently obtained some amazing wild mulloway but farmed is more readily available and we used it for this recipe. I also like mulloway for its looks; it reminds me of European sea bass. Farmed barramundi never seems to make it to our table, it can be a bit mushy in texture and too muddy in flavour. As an alternative to mulloway in this recipe I would recommend snapper.

Ingredients

2 x 2kg whole mulloway, scaled, gills, guts and fins removed
1 lemon, thinly sliced
2 fennel tops (reserved from the roast vegetable recipe)
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground white pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 200C. Score the side of each fish four times. Lay the lemon slices and fennel inside the belly. Rub the fish with olive oil and season with salt and pepper really well inside and out. Line a large baking tray with baking paper and drizzle with olive oil. Lay the fish on the paper and drizzle with more olive oil. Place in oven for approx 25 minutes or until fish is just cooked. Remove and carefully place fish on a platter, sprinkle with more sea salt and serve.

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