CookEat Recipe
Pickerel, Créole
Split pickerel baked with lemon and butter, then finished with Creole sauce and grated Parmesan.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Have a fishmonger prepare one fresh food-purpose chain pickerel, Esox niger, weighing about three pounds before its head, trimmings and spinal bone are removed. Use this same fish, split into two lengthwise sides with the skin retained. Remove accessible small bones while keeping the sides intact; small bones may remain. Keep cold until cooking.
Step 2
Heat a conventional oven to 200°C. Have the finished Creole sauce hot and ready. If using previously cooked chilled sauce, reheat it thoroughly to at least 74°C before using.
Step 3
Lightly butter an oven-safe tin with additional butter as required. Lay in both fish sides, season with the teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon white pepper, and distribute the measured half ounce of butter in little pieces over them. Squeeze the juice from half the lemon over the fish.
Step 4
Bake for about fifteen minutes as a guide, checking the thinner ends early and continuing as needed until the thickest centre of each fish side reaches 70°C away from bone.
Step 5
Transfer the fish promptly to a hot oven-safe baking dish. Pour enough of the hot finished Creole sauce over both sides to cover them and sprinkle the one tablespoon grated Parmesan over the fish in total.
Step 6
Return to the 200°C oven for about fifteen minutes as a guide, checking early. Finish until the sauce is bubbling hot, the cheese has melted and each fish side is still at least 70°C, avoiding unnecessary drying.
Step 7
Cut the remaining half lemon into thin slices and arrange them around the fish. Serve hot, taking care with any remaining small bones.
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