Spicy Sephardi baked fish with vegetables


terakihi
With a cookbook library of more than 1200 books, it should be easy for me to find inspiration. But there are times when I flick through one after another, looking for something that will tempt the tastebuds. I struck it lucky in a store last weekend when they were discounting all their books by 30 percent and some had been reduced in price already. Yes, I know I need more cookbooks like Imelda Marcos needs more shoes! However, a couple caught my eye and one was an attractive little collection of Jewish Recipes (called just that) published by Murdoch Books, ISBN 0-86411-914-3.

The Spouse was browsing through the book during an ad break on TV and drew my attention to a fish dish, Spicy Sephardi baked fish with vegetables. "That looks interesting," he said hopefully.

And so I found myself in the car heading out to one of my favourite fishmongers yesterday. The recipe called for a whole fish and this place usually has a good supply of them as they are popular with the Polynesian and Asian people who live in the area.

There was a good choice and I grabbed a nice terakihi that looked the right size for two (right). Fortunately it had already been gutted and scaled. I bought an absolute bargain of a whole fish at a market one weekend, only to discover that the scaling and evisceration was my job. I spent an unpleasant half hour putting unspeakable things down the waste disposal unit in the sink. Now I am more observant when I buy whole fish. The most I had to do with the terakihi was chop off a couple of fins.

There are two main strands to Jewish cuisine - Ashkenazi and Sephardi. Ashkenazi refers to Eastern European traditions while Sephardi is food of Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Asian origin. I have come across a similar recipe in Moroccan cuisine.

As it's New Zealand Herb Awareness Week, it's good to focus on flavourings. This dish calls for roasted cumin seeds and it is well worth doing them. They just need a little shaking in a non-stick pan over moderate heat. Watch them and don't let them burn. You will soon see when they are ready. A whole root of coriander weighs in at around 55g.

Baking the fish requires a very high heat so I used a disposable aluminium foil roasting pan.

Spicy Sephardi Baked Fish with Vegetables

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

The copyright of the article Spicy Sephardi baked fish with vegetables in New Zealand Recipes is owned by Pat Churchill. Permission to republish Spicy Sephardi baked fish with vegetables in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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