success the first time around... for once

tonight was a feat! i attempted a shady fish recipe in danish that came out leagues better than i expected. even the dane mentioned more than once that it was great. not sure why but i am generally afraid of trying fish or meat dishes, especially when cooking for someone other than myself. maybe because it might kill us. haha! but the fear makes no sense in this dish since we eat sushi all the time and this one was frozen the very hour we came home with it last week. the recipe is for 10 people but the dane and i are just a couple. so i didn't pay much attention to measurements.

victoria bass gratin with feta, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes

2 victoria bass filets
6 olives
1 clove of garlic (yeah i took it easy this time)
3-4 sun-dried tomatoes
1 tsp of capers
1 tbsp of olive oil
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp of feta

put the fish aside and chop up all that other crap coarsely. mix in the lemon juice and olive oil with the chopped goods. pat that shizzle on top of the fish and crumble feta on top. cook in a preheated oven at 190C til it flakes easily with a poke or two.

even though i thawed the fish in the fridge for 5 hours, they were still a bit frozen in the middle. that's what you get with a deep freezer. so i had to cook it a bit longer than the recipe suggests, maybe just short of 20 minutes? after they came out i garnished them with the zest of the lemon half. hopefully, if you attempt this recipe, your lemon will be organic too. x:


i served it with some vegetables quickly sauteed in some olive oil and a dab of soy sauce. after i took it off the heat, i couldn't resist topping it off with sesame oil. that stuff smells so good. considering the veggies were also from a 500g økologisk freezerbag for about 15kr, that's a pretty damn good deal. contains spinach, trimmed green beans, shiitakes, sugar snap peas (which magically hold their snap), broccoli, yellow peppers, and lotus root. lotus root? i don't even know where to buy that here. D:

victoria bass itself is a fairly cheap fish here. this was not an expensive dinner and fairly healthy. serve with a decent amount of wine; white preferred but red can stand up to the tapenade. enjoy eachother's company. (;