Nile Perch with Christmas Potato Salad is a combination of our long-term tradition and my innovation.
In the countries I come from, the fasting takes place before Christmas. Traditionally, people do not eat meat on the Christmas Eve. They serve fish instead, usually a carp. Many families buy carps all alive, few days before Christmas. The fish can swim in their baths and children have joy from it. Unfortunately, they kill them and deep fry them for The Christmas Eve Feast.
The carp is a very delicate meat, which smells quite strong. Therefore, people used to marinate it in milk at first. This fishy fish has also lots of bones, which are not in favour of my small family.
Therefore, I am trying to search for a convenient alternative. Usually it is a salmon, but this year I treated myself to Nile Perch. It has a very meaty and full-flavoured texture, which reminds me of Mahi Mahi. I recommend it strongly.
I also present you my wonderful potato salad, the best with homemade pickles. I just opened the first jar of my first try for this year and I am impressed. Yummy!
Get into a festive mood and cook with me.
Shopping list
400g of Nile Perch Filet, cleaned and drained
1 handful of fresh parsley, washed and hardly chopped
Few branches of lemon thyme
A splash of olive oil
Sea salt and ground black pepper
2 lemon wedges to finish
The Potato Salad:
5 medium potatoes, washed
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 medium sour sweet pickles and pickled carrot, finely chopped
1 juicy red apple, cleaned and chopped
3 whole eggs
3 tablespoons of pickled juice (mix of vinegar and caster sugar)
2 splashes of olive oil
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
First, cook the potatoes in salted hot boiling water until they are soft (depending on their size it takes about 15 minutes). Take them out and let them cool down for a bit.
Meanwhile, cook the eggs in salted hot boiling water for about 10 minutes until they are firm from inside. Cool them down and peel.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Next, prepare all the ingredients for salad (potatoes, onion, pickles, apple and eggs) and fish (parsley and lemon thyme).
Sprinkle a medium baking tray with the olive oil and place the filet in. Season with sea salt and pepper.
Add fresh parsley and rub it all over the top. Top it up with few branches of lemon thyme.
Sprinkle with the olive oil and bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes until The Nile Perch is baked through and juicy.
Meanwhile, prepare the salad. Peel the potatoes and grate them into a large mixing bowl. I love to do it with a simple egg grater. It gives them marvelous shape.
Then, in a small frying pan heat up 2 splashes of the olive oil on high heat. Add onion and sauté until nicely soft. Pour the hot mixture over the potatoes and mix well.
Next, pickles, carrot and apple in. Season with sea salt and pepper.
Add ½ cup of the juice from pickles and taste. Season accordingly and finish with the grated eggs.
Stir gently and serve warm (for heavier version you can also add few corn and mayonnaise).
Sprinkle the Nile Perch with lemon wedges and enjoy your meal.
Makes 3 serves.