Foil baked fish with vegetables
Foil baked fish with vegetables is a pretty, healthy, flavourful and easy dish to prepare. It conserves the nutrients in the fish and vegetables. The fish and vegetables are cooked together, they stew in a mix of their seasoned juices, so you have the fishstock, vegetable stock, herbs and spices.
Ingredients
- 300 g fish
- ¼ cup pepper mix*
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder or 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dry chilli pepper
- 1 seasoning cube
- ½ teaspoon fish seasoning (optional)
- ½ small onions
- 2 large potatoes
- 2 large carrots
- 1 small green (red and yellow bell peppers)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 deg C.
- Wash and cut fish if not using whole.
- Using a sharp knife score the fish by making slits about 1 inch apart across the body of the fish. The Cut should be deep about halfway between the skin and the bone.)
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together pepper mix, garlic, thyme, salt, dry chilli, seasoning cube and fish seasoning. Sprinkle a little salt all over the fish, making sure to get into the slits and gut opening.
- Do the same with 1 tablespoon of the seasoned pepper mix. Set aside.
- Cut onions, potatoes and carrots into 1-inch chunks.
- Cut bell peppers into long thin strips, julienned.
- Put in the bowl of pepper mix and toss around to coat.
- Cut out a piece of aluminium foil large enough to completely enclose the fish and vegetables. Place fish in the middle of the foil, place vegetables around and on top of it.
- Drizzle with vegetable oil.
- Wrap the fish and vegetables as tightly as possible so there is no leakage of both juices and steam.
- Place the parcel in the oven and bake for 25-35 minutes, until the fish flakes easily and vegetables are soft enough.
- Take out of the oven and leave to cool down a bit before opening.
- To serve on a plate, gently slide the contents of the parcel onto the plate.
Notes
- There are some people who don't like heating food in aluminium foil, if you are that way, line your aluminium foil with parchment before putting your fish in.
- Wrap as tightly as possible so there is no leakage of both juices and steam, the juices keep the food moist and the steam ensures even and thorough cooking without burning and drying out.
- Different types of fish can be used for this, salmon, mackerel, tilapia, croaker, red snapper etc, you can even use chicken or shrimps.
- Use any vegetables that are in season eg., sweet potato, yam, zucchini, cauliflower, mushroom, leek, tomato, eggplant, under-ripe plantain, onions, spinach, broccoli, pumpkin, green beans etc.
- Seasoning can include curry powder, thyme, basil, parsley, oregano etc.
- *I normally use my pepper sauce mix used in Catfish baked in pepper sauce (Point and kill), but you can use any pepper sauce you already enjoy, tabasco, sriracha or a sprinkling of dry chilli pepper, the quantity will, of course, be smaller. You can also use pesto.
