| You didn't say what kind of fish you wish to bake or what sort of stuffing
you want to use, but here are some general guidelines and some references
which might help get you started.
Fundamentals a la' James Beard's, New Fish Cookery, Dutton, 1976:
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Baking
Measure the fish at its largest point. Allow 10 minutes cooking time per
inch of thickness. If fish is frozen, double the cooking time. Bake in
a very hot oven (425F - 450F). When baking stuffed fish, stuff the fish
as usual and measure the stuffed fish at its thickest part. Bake it as
already explained, allowing 10 minutes per inch for fresh fish, 20 minutes
per inch for frozen fish.
Cooking fish in foil or paper.
When cooking fish in either foil or paper, measure the thickness of the
fish as already explained and bake in a hot oven (450F), allowing 10
minutes time per inch thickness for fresh fish and 20 minutes per inch
for frozen time, PLUS additional time for the heat to penetrate the
paper or foil. Count on five (5) extra minutes for fresh fish and ten
(10) extra minutes for frozen fish.
Beard categorizes by species and typically has a baked recipe for each.
His stuffings include: Anchovy (Scandinavian), simple Bread, Clam, Crab-
meat, Forcemeat (complicated mixture of white fish, herbs, bread crumbs,
eggs and cream), Ham, Oyster, and Vegetable.
* * * * *
Jacqueline Knight, The Cook's Fish Guide, Dutton, 1973...
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...categorizes stuffings by fish characteristics -- e.g., for firm, moist
fish there's Algerian with olives, Bolivian sherried, Caribbean with
almonds, Columbian cucumber, and Iranian with rice and nuts. For firm,
dry fish there's Finnish rice and spinach or Iranian date-nut.
* * * * *
The California Seafood Cookbook, Aris, 1983. has a lot of seemingly
------------------------------- complicated recipies, plus
citing Pacific fish which are
not always available in Boston.
However, they cite equivalents
from Atlantic waters and have
lots of good recipes for baking
and stuffing.
I've used some variations from this book, using bread-crumb augmented
Duxelles (NOTE 2382.1) inside rolled-up filets of sole or flounder. Measure
the thickness according to Beard -- secure with wooden toothpicks or skewers
and bake for the appropriate length of time -- watch for doneness periodically.
* * * * *
Some recent acquisitions to the collection come from good ol' reliable Bldg
19 are:
o Bjornskov, Elizabeth, The Complete Book of American Fish and Shell-
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fish Cookery, New York: Weathervane, 1984.
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Contains over 100 recipes for baked fish; and the stuffings
include such exotica as cheese-French bread, clam-cilantro,
cornbread, mushroom-crab, and olive-rice, Vegetable-Stuffed
Walleye, etc..
o Bashline, Sylvia, Cleaning and Cooking Fish, Publication Arts, 1982.
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Basic stuff -- great photos -- mostly freshwater fish --
e.g., Florentine-Stuffed Northern Pike, Lemon-Cucumber Stuffed
Trout, Rye-Stuffed Trout, Wild Rice Stuffed Trout, etc.
o From the Cooking With Bon Appetit -- Seafood book:
-----------------------------------
Baked Fish Mozzarella (6 servings)
2 pounds thick flounder or sole 1/2 teaspoon dried
fillets oregano
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese granulated garlic
1 large tomato, thinly sliced salt & freshly ground
pepper
Preheat oven to 375F. Butter large baking dish. Rinse
fillets in salted or acidulated water and pat dry. Arrange
in single layer in dish. Sprinkle with cheese and layer
with tomato. Dust with oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
Bake until fish is opaque, about 10 minutes. Transfer to
heated platter and serve immediately.
o Walker, Charlotte, Fish & Shellfish, Tucson: H-P, 1984.
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Both salt and freshwater fish -- organized by cooking
method. Not as many baked-stuffed as the others, but
there is one fault-tolerant one for Fish With Lemon-Rice
Stuffing worth trying.
Net-net (no pun intended) you can do just about whatever you want with
fish -- be creative. For instance The Blue Strawbery (Portsmouth NH)
does a Salmon in a Sauce Marguerite. The stuffing is partially cooked
ahead of time because fish cooks faster than does the stuffing. Their
salmon is stuffed with a mixture of cooked fresh peas, two HB eggs, a couple
of cups of fried mushrooms, a very small onion, dash of chicken base, salt
and pepper, fresh basil, some breadcrumbs and a stick of butter. Saute
all this together and stuff the cavity. Broil in foil on a grill or in
a covered dish in the oven.
The Sauce Marguerite consists of two cups of Blue Strawbery Party Cheese,
one tablespoon of moist chicken base, a cup of dry white wine, splash of
dry sherry, splash of dry vermouth, half stick of butter, juice of a
lime, dash of flour for thickening, two cups of heavy cream, a few
shallots, salt and white pepper. Simmer ingredients for about twenty
or thirty minutes, then blend to make it smooth.
The party cheese: in a saucepan bring to a simmer the following: 1/4
cup chablis, juice of one lemon, two tablspoons chives, two teaspoons
white pepper, one tablespoon garlic powder, one tablespoon of sweet
basil, and one teaspoon marjoram. Simmer for ten minutes, then run
thru a blender, then blend thoroughly into 16 ounces of cream
cheese. Cool in refrigerator.
Like shooting fish in a barrel!
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