Whole Branzino with Pine Nuts and Lemon

I like the idea of eating fish — sustainable fish; cooking fish is a whole different matter. When I saw the list of mystery ingredients in this week’s IHCC challenge, I knew a fish dish was in order. Then I went to Yotam Ottolenghi for inspiration and found the recipe for whole black bream (or bass) with pine nuts and lemon on his website. Sea breams are not readily available in my area. I substituted with branzino (or bronzino), which has shown up frequently on my dinner table. It’s a European relative of striped bass and is considered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as the most important commercial fish widely cultured in Mediterranean areas.

The approach of stuffing a whole fish with pine nuts, rice and preserved lemon, and marinating it with spices and more lemon intrigues me. Cinnamon, paprika, all spice and cayenne pepper add a warm, welcome, mildly spicy flavor to the fish. More of a chef-like dish. Not something I normally do to fishes but certainly works to wake up my taste buds and, importantly, test out another fish cooking technique.

I don’t have preserved lemon; I wish I do. Bronzino is a delicate fish and the mellow flavor of preserved lemon makes it a perfect complement. I don’t know whether it is worthwhile to pickle some lemons myself or pay the high price to buy the preserved lemons. Any thoughts? In the end, I used slices of fresh lemon instead, given that lemon juice is one of the ingredients and the lemons will be cooked. To satisfy the IHCC three-ingredient challenge, dill is purposed as a garnish and as part of the trio (white fish, dill and pine nuts) of featured mystery items. There you have it…

A light dinner from the sea. The fish dish evokes the sensibility of the sea with the appearance, taste and smell of it. A neat and whole package indeed!