Hout fil koucha — Tunisian oven-baked sea bream with potatoes and pepper

Name: Hout fil koucha — Tunisian oven-baked sea bream with potatoes and pepper
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Tunisian Jewish
Ingredients: 900 g Whole gilthead sea bream (denis), gutted and scaled (2 sea bream, 450 g each, fresh that day, gutted, scaled and slashed by the fishmonger; whole weight with head and bones); 450 g Potatoes (3 medium waxy potatoes, cut into 1 cm rounds); 250 g Tomatoes, vine or round (2 medium ripe tomatoes, sliced); 150 g Green peppers (1 pepper, cut into 1 cm strips); 100 g Yellow onions (1 small onion, sliced into rounds); 40 g Cracked green olives (About 10 olives); 20 g Garlic (4 cloves); 20 g Fresh coriander (A small handful, leaves and tender stems); 10 g Flat-leaf parsley (A few sprigs, chopped with the coriander); 240 g Lemon (2 lemons: one for juice (about 50 g), one thinly sliced); 25 g Harissa (1 heaped tbsp; 15 g for mild heat); 4 g Ground cumin (2 level tsp); 2 g Ground caraway (1 level tsp); 5 g Sweet paprika (2 tsp); 60 g Extra virgin olive oil (6 tbsp: 40 g for the vegetables, 20 g for the sauce); 11 g Fine salt (4 g for the sea bream, 5 g for the vegetables, 2 g for the sauce); 50 g Water (Only underneath the potatoes; no water in the sauce)

pareve fish Tunisian Jewish · 3/5 · medium · 70 min, including 30 hands-on

The hout fil koucha of the Jews of Tunis: whole sea bream roasted over potatoes, tomatoes and pepper, coated in a lemon sauce with garlic, coriander, cumin and harissa.

Ingredients for two

900 g	Whole gilthead sea bream (denis), gutted and scaled 2 sea bream, 450 g each, fresh that day, gutted, scaled and slashed by the fishmonger; whole weight with head and bones
450 g	Potatoes 3 medium waxy potatoes, cut into 1 cm rounds
250 g	Tomatoes, vine or round 2 medium ripe tomatoes, sliced
150 g	Green peppers 1 pepper, cut into 1 cm strips
100 g	Yellow onions 1 small onion, sliced into rounds
40 g	Cracked green olives About 10 olives (optional)
20 g	Garlic 4 cloves
20 g	Fresh coriander A small handful, leaves and tender stems
10 g	Flat-leaf parsley A few sprigs, chopped with the coriander
240 g	Lemon 2 lemons: one for juice (about 50 g), one thinly sliced
25 g	Harissa 1 heaped tbsp; 15 g for mild heat
4 g	Ground cumin 2 level tsp
2 g	Ground caraway 1 level tsp
5 g	Sweet paprika 2 tsp
60 g	Extra virgin olive oil 6 tbsp: 40 g for the vegetables, 20 g for the sauce
11 g	Fine salt 4 g for the sea bream, 5 g for the vegetables, 2 g for the sauce
50 g	Water Only underneath the potatoes; no water in the sauce

Method

As soon as you return from the fishmonger, pat the sea bream dry with kitchen paper and salt inside and out: 4 g in total, or 1/2 tsp per fish, inside the cavity, in the slashes and on both sides. Refrigerate uncovered while preparing the next steps, for at least 15–20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 cm rounds; slice the onion into rounds and the pepper into 1 cm strips. Toss in the large baking dish (35 × 25 cm) with 40 g oil and 5 g salt. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer with the onion and pepper on top, then pour 50 g water into the bottom. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes once the oven is hot: the potato slices should be almost tender when pierced with a knife before the fish is added.
While the vegetables pre-cook, crush the garlic and chop the coriander and parsley very finely, reserving a few coriander leaves. Mix the garlic, chopped herbs, harissa, cumin, caraway, paprika, remaining 20 g oil, 2 g salt and the juice of one whole lemon to make a thick paste that holds on a spoon, with no added water. Thinly slice the second lemon and the tomatoes.
Take the sea bream out of the fridge and coat with half the paste, inside and on both sides, working it into the slashes. Put one or two lemon slices and an onion slice taken from the baking dish into each cavity. Keep the fish refrigerated until ready to bake.
Remove the foil from the baking dish: the potatoes should be almost tender and the bottom coated in oil. Spread the tomatoes over the vegetables, reserving 6 slices, then add the olives and dot over the remaining paste. Rest each sea bream on 3 lemon slices and 3 tomato slices so it does not stick to the potatoes and absorbs lemon flavour from below. Bake uncovered at 200°C for 22–28 minutes, basting the fish once with the pan juices after 15 minutes.
Start checking after 22 minutes: the flesh at the thickest slash should be opaque and come away from the bone when pressed; a probe reading of 55–58°C near the bone is enough, as the temperature rises during resting. The potato edges should be golden and the juices reduced to a glossy orange sauce. If the potatoes colour too quickly, cover them with a corner of foil. If a knife tip still meets resistance in the potatoes when the fish is cooked, take the dish out, cover with foil and wait 5 minutes: the heat in the dish finishes the potatoes without drying out the fish.
Rest the fish in the dish out of the oven for 3 minutes. Scatter over the reserved coriander leaves and serve one sea bream per person, lifting it with two spatulas, with half the vegetables and the pan juices. Provide a small plate for bones at the table.

Fish-free

Whole gilthead sea bream (denis), gutted and scaled → Boneless skinless chicken thighs (pargiyot) 400 g (4 small skinless thighs, opened out and flattened to 1.5 cm by the kosher butcher)

The replacement quantities make two chicken plates. For one fish plate and one fish-free plate, use 1 sea bream weighing 450 g and 200 g chicken, keeping all the vegetables and sauce in the recipe for both people. Salt the chicken as for the fish in step 1: 1.5 g for 200 g, on both sides.
From step 2, divide the potatoes, onion, pepper, oil, salt and water between the large dish for the sea bream and the second 25 × 18 cm dish for the chicken, with half the vegetables in each. Pre-cook them together under foil for 20 minutes. Make the paste in one bowl, then divide between two clean bowls before any contact with the proteins.
In step 4, use half the paste from each bowl to coat its protein: fish in the large dish, chicken in the small one. Put the tomatoes, olives, lemon slices and remaining paste from each bowl over the corresponding vegetables, then place each protein in its own dish. Use separate spoons.
In step 5, tightly cover the chicken dish with foil and bake beside the sea bream, which roasts uncovered: never leave both dishes uncovered in the oven at the same time. Under foil, the flattened chicken thigh braises in its sauce and cooks in 22–25 minutes while staying tender. Once the sea bream is out and resting, remove the chicken's foil and put it at the top of the oven at 220°C for 5 minutes to colour: 72°C in the centre, or clear juices. Never baste one dish with the other's juices; finish each with its own coriander and serve with its own vegetables.

One sauce made once, with two dishes kept separate from the vegetable stage onwards. Never roast uncovered fish and chicken together in the same oven: the chicken stays under foil for the entire shared cooking time and is browned only after the fish has been taken out.

Lighter version

Extra virgin olive oil : 35 g

Less oil under the vegetables (15 g instead of 40 g), with the same sauce and fish.

On your plate

Recipe

1202 kcal · protein 104 g · carbs 52 g · fat 59 g

Quantities per person

450 g Whole gilthead sea bream (denis), gutted and scaled
225 g Potatoes
125 g Tomatoes, vine or round
75 g Green peppers
50 g Yellow onions
20 g Cracked green olives
10 g Garlic
10 g Fresh coriander
5 g Flat-leaf parsley
120 g Lemon
12.5 g Harissa
2 g Ground cumin
1 g Ground caraway
2.5 g Sweet paprika
30 g Extra virgin olive oil
5.5 g Fine salt
25 g Water

Fish-free version

853 kcal · protein 50 g · carbs 52 g · fat 45 g

Quantities per person

225 g Potatoes
125 g Tomatoes, vine or round
75 g Green peppers
50 g Yellow onions
20 g Cracked green olives
10 g Garlic
10 g Fresh coriander
5 g Flat-leaf parsley
120 g Lemon
12.5 g Harissa
2 g Ground cumin
1 g Ground caraway
2.5 g Sweet paprika
30 g Extra virgin olive oil
5.5 g Fine salt
25 g Water
200 g Boneless skinless chicken thighs (pargiyot)

Cooking tips

Buy fresh sea bream on the day of cooking, fully prepared by the fishmonger, and ask them to slash the fish. The sauce can be made a day ahead and develops more flavour; cold leftover vegetables with a squeeze of lemon make a kemia. For sea bream weighing 350 g, allow 18–22 minutes. The 1 cm potato slices and pre-cooking under foil bring the potatoes halfway to doneness, so they finish tender underneath and golden on top without prolonging the fish's cooking time. The 900 g is the whole purchased weight: the automatic nutrition calculation overestimates the flesh actually eaten because it does not subtract the head and bones.

Equipment : large 35 × 25 cm baking dish (or arrange the two sea bream head-to-tail diagonally in a 30 × 24 cm dish), foil, two bowls, garlic press, cooking thermometer, second 25 × 18 cm baking dish for the chicken variation

A dish from the neighbourhood communal ovens (koucha) of Tunisian Jewish families, in a version with green pepper and sliced lemon.

Hout fil koucha — Tunisian oven-baked sea bream with potatoes and pepper

Method

On your plate

Recipe

Fish-free version

Cooking tips

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