Lemon Basil Redfish

One fish, two fish, red fish. No bluefish, but this week’s Fresh Catch was indeed redfish, or ocean perch. After many weeks of cod, which I do adore, I was thrilled when my favorite fish expert pulled a bag of big-eyed, red fish out of the CAFC cooler. Yay!

I made a dish similar to this with last week’s sole, using lemon and fresh basil. I loved the way it filled our kitchen with that fragrant, flowery basil aroma. It went well with the sole, so I decided to try it out with the redfish. The result offered that fantastic flavor and aroma of fresh basil, and the tang of lemon which added just the right amount of zing to the the fish.

Cape Ann Fresh Catch has a new season beginning on August 9th. I plan to join, mainly for the whiting – a delicate and seasonal white fish. I fell in love with fresh whiting from the share last fall and I was disappointed to find that’s not available fresh all year, and not surprisingly it is not as delicate when acquired from the supermarket freezer.

I have learned more about local fish and its seasonality in the past year of being a member of Cape Ann Fresh Catch than I have in my entire life, which has been spent on or near the coast of New England. This fact speaks to our dependence on supermarkets that maintain a uniform stock from coast to coast. I cannot count the number of times I’ve asked at our local supermarket fish counter where the lobster comes from, only to be told it’s just been shipped in from Canada, when I can see lobster traps from my window.

Anyway, CAFC’s new season starts on the 9th, and the application can be found here.

Lemon Basil Redfish – serves  5 – 6

5 – 6 redfish (ocean perch) – about 3 lb
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 C basil, loosely chopped
1 t salt
2 T olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Meanwhile, watch the video. Remove the fins (which are sharp). Make an incision to remove the – how shall I put it delicately? Guts. Remove the gills and give the fish a rinse. I learned the hard way that it is a good idea to remove all of the black lining. Apparently this is important with ocean perch because it can have a bitter flavor. We didn’t scale it, but that would probably be a good idea.

Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the fish on the sheet, salt the inside, and stuff with basil. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve whole – each fish is an individual serving. Just peel back the skin and watch for bones.

Ingredient origins: redfish – local waters, lemon – California, basil – Massachusetts, sea salt – Maine, olive oil – Italy