With what seems to be the official arrival of summer in many European countries, we start to transition from the hearty food to the more light and summery meals! In Portugal, that means seafood dishes, grilled fish, fish stews, and so on! An oven baked sea bream is one of those meals, simple, uncomplicated, quick, and incredible delicious!
The Portuguese Dourada – The Gilt-head bream
While is unarguable that both salt cod and sardines are the signature fish of Portugal, a lot of different fish are equally appreciated by the locals. The gilt-head bream is one of them.
The Dourada as it is called here, is a species from the bream family Sparidae. Its habitats are the Mediterranean Sea, and the eastern coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Portuguese it is called dourada which means golden, in allusion to the golden patch it has between the eyes. The fish is very popular in Mediterranean cooking mainly for its delicate flavour, soft texture, and relatively low oil content.
In Portuguese cooking, the bream is very commonly prepared whole on a charcoal grill, like sardines, sometimes it will be butterflied too. Differently to the sardines, it can also be oven baked alongside potatoes, and sometimes peppers and tomatoes, in a more Mediterranean style. It’s a truly versatile fish, and reasonable value too, commonly costing around €6 per kg fresh from your local fish monger.
About Our Oven Baked Sea Bream Recipe
Our favourite way to prepare dourada is to oven bake the whole fish. We know that cooking a whole fish might sound intimidating for some of you, but it’s actually much simpler than it sounds. You can ask your fishmonger to remove the scales and gut the fish. The gut cavity will be used to add some herbs, and lemon.
Then we place a couple of potatoes, and onions next to the fish, and season everything with salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. The fish should be cook just for time enough for the meat to start flaking away from the spine, and the skin gains some colour and texture. This way the fish will remain juicy. This a complete meal as it is, but it can also be served with some salad, bread, and even white rice.
How to Make Portuguese Oven Baked Sea Bream – Dourada Assada no Forno com Batatas
We usually serve one whole medium dourada, per adult. Medium dourada’s are usually around 300-350g each.
Portuguese Baked Bream – Dourada Assada
2
servings20
minutes30
minutes650
kcalOven Baked Bream or dourada assada in Portuguese, is one the simplest and one of the most delicious way of preparing and cooking it!
Ingredients
2 Medium Douradas (300g each)
400 g Potatoes – partially boiled
1 Medium Onion – Sliced
2 Slices of Lemon
1 Juice of half a Lemon
Fresh Thyme
Salt
Black Pepper
Directions
- Preheat the oven at 200°C. Rinse your fish, then pat it dry with some kitchen towel. Using a sharp knife, make superficial cuts on the skin of the fish. Then place the fish on a large baking tray.
- Place 1 or 2 slices of lemon, and a couple of sprigs of thyme into the gut cavity. Season the cavity with salt and pepper. Season the fish with the lemon juice.
- Accommodate your preboiled potatoes, and onion slices next to the fish. Use the back of a knife to lightly crush the garlic cloves without removing the peel, place it on top of the potatoes.
- Season both the fish, and the potatoes with salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
- Pop it in the preheated oven, bake it for 30 minutes approximately. The fish should be cooked but still juicy. You can use a fork to poke the meat through one of the slits on top, it should be ready when the meat gently flakes away from the spine.
Have you tried our Dourada Assada recipe? Let us know in the comments!
