$$ · filleting, skinning, and trimming whole fish
Fillet a whole fish without wasting half of it
Following the bones and contours of whole fish with a narrow, flexible blade.
Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Flexible Fillet Knife
AI-generated illustration of the dish
Besugo a la madrileña, the Christmas Eve fish of Madrid: a whole blackspot seabream with lemon slices set into its sides, roasted over sliced potatoes with white wine, garlic, parsley and a little breadcrumb. Simple on purpose, because besugo is a fish that does not want a sauce.
Serves 4Prep 20 minCook 45 min
Can't find Besugo?
- Dorada — Both are Sparidae roasted whole on the bone, and besugo is the deeper-water, slower-growing, considerably more expensive relative — finer and sweeter, where dorada is milder and everyday.
- Huachinango — Both are premium red-skinned whole-roasting fish with sweet white flesh — red snapper is firmer and more tropical, besugo finer and more delicate.
Ingredients & method
Ingredients
- 1 whole besugo (blackspot seabream), 1.2 to 1.5 kg, scaled and gutted
- 800 g waxy potatoes, peeled and sliced about 5 mm thick
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
- 150 ml dry white wine
- Salt
Method
- 1Heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F).
- 2Toss the potatoes and onion with half the oil and a good pinch of salt, spread them in a roasting tin large enough for the fish, and bake 20 minutes, until they start to soften.
- 3Meanwhile, rinse and dry the fish. Make 3 or 4 deep diagonal cuts across one side, down to the bone. Season it with salt inside and out.
- 4Cut half the lemon into half-moon slices and set one into each cut, so the fish looks striped. Squeeze the other half over it.
- 5Mix the garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs.
- 6Lay the fish on the potatoes, cut side up. Pour the wine around it, drizzle with the rest of the oil and scatter the garlic and parsley crumbs over the top.
- 7Roast 20 to 25 minutes, basting once with the juices, until the flesh lifts easily off the bone at the thickest part, about 55 °C (130 °F).
- 8Bring it to the table in the tin, lift the fillets off the bone and serve with the potatoes and juices.
Cook this well
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Chef's tip
Order it early: besugo's price climbs steeply in the days before Nochebuena. The real fish has a dark spot just behind the gill; much of what is sold cheaply as besugo is a smaller Pagellus relative. Dorada works the same way for less, in about 20 minutes for an 800 g fish. Ask the fishmonger to scale and gut it.
Cook this later?Save the recipe, then keep notes on what worked and what you'd change next time.