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Butter-basted pike-perch: Christmas Eve fish if you worry about carp bones
Crispy-skinned pike-perch fillets, pan-seared and basted with butter, lemon, and parsley. Ready in 20 minutes and serves 4.
Save on PinterestRecipe at a glance
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Total time
- 20 min
- Servings
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Slovak
Butter-basted pike-perch is a pan-seared fillet with crispy skin, basted with foaming butter and lemon. It has firm white flesh and very few small bones in the fillet, making it a good alternative to carp for Christmas Eve dinner. It is ready in 20 minutes and is served with potato salad or boiled potatoes. The skin stays crisp when you pat the fillet dry and cook it skin-side down for most of the cooking time.
Ingredients
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Instructions
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Prepare the fillets
10 minPat the fillets dry with a paper towel and make several shallow cuts in the skin with a knife. Season with salt and pepper, lightly coat the skin side with flour, and shake off the excess.
Sear skin-side down
6 minHeat the oil in a skillet and place the fillets skin-side down. Press them down with a spatula for the first 20 seconds to keep them from curling. Cook over medium heat for 4–5 minutes, until the flesh turns opaque almost all the way to the top.
Baste with butter
3 minTurn the fillets over and add the butter. Once it foams, spoon it over the fish for another 1–2 minutes. The internal temperature should reach 63°C (145°F), and the flesh should flake easily.
Finish and serve
1 minRemove from the heat and add the lemon juice and parsley. Serve the fillets skin-side up, spooning the butter from the pan over them.
Tip: Pat the fillets thoroughly dry before cooking; wet skin will stick and won't turn crisp. Don't crowd the pan; cook two fillets at a time instead.
Nutrition facts
Approximate values per serving, calculated from the ingredients
- Energy
- 320 kcal
- Protein
- 33 g
- Carbohydrates
- 5.4 g
- of which sugars
- 0.4 g
- Fat
- 18 g
- of which saturates
- 8.4 g
- Fiber
- 0.6 g
- Salt
- 1.0 g
Calculated from the raw ingredients, without frying oil. Where an amount is “to taste”, typical amounts are used. Food composition: USDA FoodData Central and product labels.
This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Zubáč na masle: ryba na Štedrú večeru pre tých, ktorí sa boja kostí z kapra
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