Fish Plaki - Ψαρι Πλακι

My dad's garden

My dad's garden

I am back after being absent for a few weeks. I went back home to Cyprus to visit my parents and my immediate family. I have to admit that it was a very emotional visit since my father hasn’t been well. I spent a lot of quality time with both of my parents and was mostly with them while in Cyprus. As I expected it was extremely hard to say goodbye and leave them behind in a very fragile state of health…

While I was back home I baked with my sister traditional Easter pastries as well as other delicacies and consumed a lot of these creations :-). I was able to bring  back with me a couple of new recipes which I need to try out soon and share with you.

… and since Easter is long gone, I decided to share a different kind of recipe today using fish and seasonal vegetables. I will share my Easter pastries’ recipes later on in the year.

Easter Pastries - Flaounes

In today’s recipe I use whole fish something that’s unusual in the U.S. It’s a very common way of cooking fish back home though. I hope I can encourage you to try it out. It’s a simple, yet easy and healthy recipe to execute.

Snaper

 

Fish Plaki

2 ½ pounds whole fish – snapper or other similar fish

2 ½ pounds red potatoes

1 ½ cups chopped tomatoes

2 medium onions

2 cups chopped parsley

1-2 lemons

1 cup olive oil

3 garlic cloves

3 bay leaves

Salt

Pepper

Peel and slice the potatoes – ¼ inch thick. Place in cold water so they don’t turn brown.

Wash and slice the lemons; set aside.

If using whole fish, clean it from the intestines and the scales. Wash in cold water.

Peel the onions and cut in semi-circles. On high heat sauté the onions in half of the olive oil. Add the finely chopped garlic. Slowly add the chopped tomatoes and bay leaves. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Lastly, add the chopped parsley. Stir and remove from the heat.

In a deep baking dish place the potatoes in layers. Season with salt. Drizzle over them the remaining olive oil.

Place the fish on top of the sliced potatoes. Place a few lemon slices on top of the fish and then pour part of the tomato sauce.

Fish Plaki

Cover with parchment paper and bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until you can easily fork the fish.

A few minutes before removing from the oven remove the parchment paper so the fish can get a nice golden color on top.

Cooked Fish Plaki

Serve immediately.

Καλη ορεξη!!!

Makes 4-6 servings

 Till next time stay well!