Ingredients:
- 2 Piran sea bass – app. 0.6–0.8 kg or
- 1 Piran sea bass – app. 0.8–1.2 kg
-
3 kg salt for baking
Optional ingredients:
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tbsp flour
- potatoes
- olive oil
- garlic
- sprig of rosemary, preferably fresh
-
freshly ground pepper
How to prepare
Clean the fish, but do not de-scale it, wash it gently and pat it dry with paper towels. Layer salt in the baking pan app 1 cm thick and place the fish on it. You can season the cavity of the fish with a bit of olive oil and a sprig of rosemary and/or garlic. Cover the incision in the cavity with a piece of tin foil to prevent direct contact of the fish’s meat with salt.
Cover the fish completely with the remaining salt, app. 1 cm thick. You can put a few washed, unpeeled, half-cooked potatoes in the salt as well. Put the baking pan in a preheated oven and bake 30 to 60 minutes at 200 to 220 °C (depending on the size of the fish). The salt will become slightly browned and hardened.
After the baking is finished, break the crust (the salty shell) with a knife or a kitchen hammer and remove as much salt as possible from the fish so that the entire half of the sea bass is visible. Remove the skin. Once the top side of the fish is peeled, the meat from this side can be served. Remove the bones and the head, and clean the meat from the other side in the same way.
If you would like the salty shell that forms around the fish to become even harder and browner, mix salt and two egg whites in a bowl. You can also add 2 spoons of flour.
You can dress the cleaned fish meat with a bit of mild olive oil, which will add an extra kick to the delicious, yet very mild taste of sea bass baked in salt.
Potatoes baked in salt, or Swiss chard with potatoes make excellent side dishes.