Whole baked fish with mushroom and feta stuffed peppers
Use your favourite whole fish, or whatever is on offer that day, to make this juicy dinner for two. The peppers are baked to perfection - add a extra sprinkle of feta on top for a treat!
Ingredients
For the baked peppers
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
- 175g/6oz mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
- 20g/½oz blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped
- 4 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained well, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 50g/1¾oz dried white breadcrumbs
- ½ small bunch parsley, finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú feta, crumbled
- 2 small red or yellow peppers, cut in half from top to bottom, seeds and stalk removed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the whole baked fish
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 200g/7oz mushrooms
- 175g/6oz new potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1cm/½in slices
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained well
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 15²µ/½´Ç³ú pine nuts
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 whole fish, gutted and scaled
- 1 lemon, halved
- handful flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped, to serve
- handful fresh basil, roughly shredded, to serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and line a roasting tin with kitchen foil.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and stir-fry the mushrooms over a high heat for 4 minutes. Add the hazelnuts and cook for another 5 minutes until lightly toasted. Season and remove from the heat.
Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, breadcrumbs, parsley and chilli flakes until thoroughly combined. Gently fold in the feta.
Place the peppers, cut side up, in the tin and fill each half with the mushroom and feta stuffing. Cover the surface of the stuffing with a small piece of kitchen foil to prevent burning.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until the peppers are tender, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes of the cooking time.
Meanwhile line a large baking tray with baking paper.
In a large glass bowl, mix together the onion, mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, nuts and oil.
Spread half of the vegetables onto the tray. Place the fish on top and use the remaining vegetables to stuff the fish cavity and tip over the top. Add the lemon halves and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
Serve the whole fish on a large serving platter with the stuffed peppers around the fish. Sprinkle with fresh herbs and a squeeze of the roasted lemon.