Salt-Crusted Fish

Want an easy way to impress your friends at a DP? Try Salt-Crusted Fish. This European classic is tasty to eat and fun to serve!

Start by finding a great seafood department. This dish is typically made with a whole fish (scaled and gutted) but if you don't have a local fish monger at your fingertips you can also grab two large fillets and put them together (skin side out).

Make sure to use a non-endangered species of fish! Many seafood species have become drastically over-fished and are about to become extinct. For a great way to make sure your seafood is sustainably sound, check out the system the fine folks at Monterey Bay Aquarium are using to make these decisions easy for all of us.

Alright, now to the recipe.

This is what you'll need: A nice sized whole fish or two fillets stacked together skin side out, about 2 lbs of kosher salt (mix this with 1/3 cups water and you've got your salt mix!), 1 lemon, herbs of your choice.

• Pre-Heat oven to 475 degrees
• Line your pan with parchment paper
• Make a bed of salt 3/4 of an inch thick for your fish to lay on
• Slap your fish down on the salt
• Fill the cavities of the fish with lemon slices and your favorite herbs (for our DP I used fresh oregano, sage, and basil)
• COMPLETELY cover the fish with salt, packing it into a nice mound
• Pop it in the oven, leave it for 45 minutes or until the salt gets a nice brownish crust on it
• Use some heavy kitchen utensils to crack open the salt
• Behold the tender and juicy goodness that is your salt-crusted fish and serve

We tried this at last night's DP and it was a great success! Enjoy!

Cost: about $30 for 5 lbs of fish, $2 for the salt, herbs are free when you grow your own! $32 total. For a dozen guests, this is about $2.60 a person. Nice!

photo courtesy: haleyobrianphoto