Baked bream with potatoes

How to prepare baked sea bream . If there is a quintessential fish recipe for Christmas, that is the baked sea bream .

Although it is true that its price is not the best it has, since it is usually uneconomical, it is a fish highly valued for its delicate flavor and its juicy white meat.

It is traditionally prepared in the oven in which you can substitute the bream for other fish such as snapper, sea bass or sea bream. We can also prepare this fish in many ways: A delicious bream back , the  bream on the grill , a grill or donostiarra.

You will find recipes similar to the preparation of this baked fish. If the price puts you back you can always opt for cheaper fish such as a traditional baked trout , a classic baked gilthead with potatoes or the always useful baked hake .

A fish with so many qualities and a letter of introduction so good that I do not understand very well because the RAE recognizes the word bream to designate a clumsy or foolish person.  I leave you with this clumsy sea bream with potatoes. A very simple recipe that looks great, I hope you like it.

Preparation of baked sea bream

1. We buy a big bream and ask the fishmonger to clean it from the viscera and scales.
2. At home we go over the fish to remove any possible remains that may have been left, season with salt and pepper on the inside of the belly and reserve.
3. We peel the potatoes and cut them into not too thin slices, about 5 mm thick. Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet , add the potatoes and fry them until they start to brown. We remove on kitchen paper and reserve.
4. In a tray suitable for the oven we pour a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and place the sea bream on top.
5. We make two incisions with a knife in the loin of the bream and we introduce a lemon slice in each one.
6. Cut the onion in julienne strips and add it to the fish tray, as well as the chopped parsley.

Baking and final presentation of baked sea bream

1. We preheat to 200º C for 10 minutes before adding the bream.
2. We water the fish with the lemon juice, the glass of wine and salt. Finally sprinkle the sea bream with breadcrumbs and bake at 180º C, with the oven previously hot, for 30-35 minutes. Our bream was almost 2 kilos, if it is smaller they will be enough for a 1 kilo bream about 20-25 minutes. For more weight (great specimen you will have in your hands), calculate 12-15 more minutes per kilo.
3. We will put it in the oven tray in the middle part, neither too high nor too low. With heat up and down, no hot air. So it will be perfect for you.
4. Remember that each oven is a world and they are indicative times (therefore the time frame of 5 minutes). You know your oven better than anyone.
5. While the fish is baking, fry the 3 whole garlic cloves in a frying pan with 4 or 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, until they are golden brown, taking care not to burn them.
6. After 15 minutes we remove the tray from the oven and add the reserved potatoes.
7. We pour the oil and garlic on the fish. We put back in the oven and continue baking 15 more minutes. Potatoes cooked in this way take on a spectacular lemon-scented flavor, you’ll freak out.
8. We serve the hot bream in generous pieces that we have carefully cut so that it does not fall apart and the potatoes with part of the juice that the fish has released. To enjoy!

Be sure to enjoy all the recipes for fish and seafood that we have on the blog. If you do not want to miss a detail of how to prepare this recipe for baked sea bream , click on the photos in the step by step.

Tips for buying sea bream

• To buy a good fresh bream you must trust your fishmonger, the trusted one, who will not fool you. If you do not have a reliable fishmonger, you should make sure that the peixe’s eyes are bright and not sunken. Their gills should be red and without brown spots, their skin very shiny, firm and slippery. See if the scales are tight to the body, that it has no yagas or wounds. And finally that it has a pleasant smell, which helps a lot, is something that is quite obvious. With these premises, you will surely have a 10-point bream for home.
• The red color inside the bream’s head is the natural color of this fish, it is not blood or raw.
• The only downside to this recipe is the price. Normally this bream is a luxury dish, because it is not cheap in the market. If you buy it before Christmas you can find it from 16 to 20 euros per kilo.
• At Christmas its prices can be around 45 euros per kilo, one pass. My recommendation is that you buy it on dates before Christmas and freeze it. Planning in purchases is essential.

Your advice and recommendations for making a baked sea bream

• Many people prepare everything raw from the start. But if the potatoes are not ideal, you can find that at the end of the preparation they are hard. My advice is to pre-cook them for a few minutes or fry them as we have done in this recipe. So they will be perfect.
• If you find that the skin of the fish is too toasted, cover it with a sheet of aluminum foil. The fish will be ready when the potatoes are tender. Remember that this recipe can be made with almost any type of fish: sea bream, red snapper, sea bass or turbot.
• The friend Juan Carlos  has given me some advice to complete the recipe. And of course I share with all of you: “ The temperature and the time you have used to bake this excellent fish for a conventional oven without hot air are 20 minutes per kilo of fish at around 180ºC.
• Be careful with hot or turbo air since we should never use this function to bake fish.
• I do not recommend that you cut the fish as we should never prick the meat. It has also caught my attention that, being a natural from my beloved Ourense, you mention “some Galician white wine” as an ingredient. “Naciches for diplomat companion”. R

  I find that the initiative to add the very hot oil to the bream in the end with the garlic is a good idea. Since the skin of the fish will be crisp and I guarantee it is very tasty ”

Curiosities about sea bream

• We can say that this fish is not totally a white fish, nor is it blue.
• The classification is based on the digestibility of the meat of the fish. That is, in its percentage of fat, being lean-white those that contain up to 2% of body fat. Blue-fatty those containing more than 5% body fat and qualifying as semi-fatty those between 2-5%.
• If we consume it in winter it would go through a blue fish.  With 9% of its weight in fat and a large amount of omega 3 acids, beneficial for the arteries and the heart.
• It contains vitamins A, D, and group B, effective against anemia and beneficial for the nervous system. It also provides magnesium, phosphorous, iron and a large amount of potassium.