Caribbean Baked Fish

If you're fed up of fried fish or simply looking for a healthier way to cook fish the island way then this Caribbean baked fish recipe is what you need to try. It's simple, a whole fish of your choice, seasoned, stuffed with vegetables and leafy greens and baked to perfection.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Caribbean

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 30

Calories 785kcal

Author Charla

Ingredients

2-4 medium fish snapper, parrot, doctor fish etc...
2 tablespoon seafood seasoning see the notes for the recipe
3 tablespoon butter melted

For the stuffing

2 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion sliced
3 garlic cloves minced
1 small tomato chopped
2 cups leafy greens tightly packed callaloo, dasheen bush, spinach, kale etc...
½ cho cho/christophine chopped
5-6 fingers of okra sliced
1 teaspoon thyme (5g) dried or fresh (stems removed)
¼ cup warm water (60ml)
2 teaspoon seafood seasoning (10g)
1 tablespoon dairy free butter optional
black pepper and pink salt to taste

Instructions

To season/marinate the fish

Preheat the oven at 180c/gas mark 4/356F
Place aluminium foil on a baking sheet along with some parchment paper on top and set aside.
Mix together the melted butter along with the seafood seasoning in a small bowl to create a wet rub then set aside.
Place the washed/dried fish on a chopping board then using a chef's knife (or utility knife) slash the fish diagonally, 2-3 times with a 3-4cm gap in between each slash. Be careful not to slash too deep into the fish cavity. Repeat this step on the other side.
Place the fish on top of the parchment paper with the foil underneath.
Use a pastry brush to lightly coat the cavity and both sides of each fish with the butter/seasoning mix including the diagonal slashes too then set aside.

To steam the vegetable stuffing

Add the olive oil to the skillet on medium heat.
Add the onion and garlic then sauté until soft and translucent.
Add the tomatoes and continue to stir for about 1 minute before adding the cho cho, okra and the leafy greens of your choice.
Add the warm water to the pan then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with the lid.
Allow the greens to steam for about 5 minutes
Once steamed (drain off any excess water), season with the seafood seasoning, dairy free butter, black pepper and pink salt to taste

To bake and roast the fish

Stuff the cavity of the fish with the vegetables, putting in as much as you can into each fish.
Loosely wrap the fish with the aluminium foil
Bake the fish for roughly 40 minutes
Remove the fish from the oven and then unwrap the fish leaving the top side exposed and lightly roast the fish for 5-10 minutes.

Notes

You will need to use a whole fish in order to stuff it. Oily whole fish such as snapper, doctor fish, parrot fish etc.. will work.
If possible use callaloo or dasheen bush to make it more Caribbean themed. I used kale because living in diaspora, it's not always easy to get hold of callaloo/dasheen bush.
If you don't like gutting/scaling fish ask your fish monger to do this for you.
As per Caribbean custom the fish is washed (I used lime/vinegar/salt), see my post showing how to make Stew Fish if you want to learn more.
You will need my homemade Seafood Seasoning to season the fish.
Don't forget to season the cavity before stuffing the fish as well as the outside. You will want to apply the seasoning between the clashes too.

Nutrition