Baked White Fish, Lemon Cream Sauce . . .

Easy steps for all cook . . .

Mix butter, cream, garlic, mustard and lemon;

Pour over fish; and

Bake – no flipping required.

And out comes this – tender baked fish fillets with a beautiful lemon cream sauce that’s perfect with fish!

This recipe will work for most fish, but is especially great for white fish fillets

 

        This recipe really is all about that Lemon Cream Sauce for fish which is made in the same pan while the fish is baking. It’s a simple sauce which actually tastes pretty unimpressive when you first mix it up.

       But once it’s baked and the fish juices mix in with it, it transforms into an incredible sauce. It’s basically like making a sauce with real homemade fish stock – just like fine dining restaurants do!

        White Fish fillet – any fairly flat white fish fillet is fine here, about 2 cm/ 4/5 ” thick or less. Any thicker, and the fish will take longer to bake which will thicken the sauce too much so you’ll need to thin it with a splash of water.

Escallot/French onion – those small onions, they’re more delicate than normal onions so they work well in a quick fish recipe like this. Use the white part of green onions as a sub, or really finely minced normal onion.

Dijon Mustard – sauce thickener. Can sub with other non seedy mustards.

Garlic – goes in almost everything in my world!

Cream – use heavy / thickened cream if you can, to help with sauce consistency. Low cal sub – evaporated milk. It’s not quite the same.

Butter – there is no substitute!

Lemon – lime would work in an emergency situation. Sub: 1/3 cup white wine simmered to reduce to 2 tbsp, use in place of lemon in recipe.

 

Ingredients:

 

-  4 x 150- 180g / 5 – 6 oz fish fillets , about 1.5cm / 1/2″ thick, skinless and boneless (Note 1)

-  50g / 4 tbsp unsalted butter

-  1/4 cup cream, heavy / thickened (See Note 2 for sub options)

-  1 – 2 garlic cloves , minced

-  1 tbsp Dijon mustard

-  1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

-  Salt & pepper

-  1 1/2 tbsp eschallots (French onion) , finely chopped (Note 3)

-  Fresh parsley and lemon slices , to serve

 

 

Instructions:

-  Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (all oven types).

-  Place fish in a baking dish – ensure the fish isn’t crammed in too snugly. See video or photos in post. Sprinkle both sides of fish with salt and pepper.

-  Place butter, cream, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a microwave proof jug or bowl. Microwave in 2 x 30 sec bursts, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.

-  Sprinkle fish with shallots, then pour over sauce.

-  Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until fish is just cooked. Remove from oven and transfer fish to serving plates. Spoon over sauce, and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges if using.

 

 

Sauce consistency will differ depending on the fish that you use – different fish leech different amounts of water while baking. If you really want to thicken the sauce, just take the fish out of the baking dish and return the pan to the oven for a few minutes (it will thicken quickly so keep an eye on it!)