My experiments / experiences with Nordic fish continues. Today’s guest is Siika, aka Freshwater Whitefish.

When I was eating nothing but smoked fish last summer due to my nice lil Dukan diet, I discovered this great fish called siika and I immediately fell in love with it. But then again, I ate that too much just like smoked salmon, so after summer, towards mid-autumn, I was already done with the whole smoked experience… Therefore as I was holding this raw and delicate fish fillet, I was hoping that oven-baking process would revive my relationship with siika, just as it did for salmon.

Oh my, as usual, it was even better than salmon… This fish is de-li-cious!

Ingredients:

2 fillets of boneless freshwater whitefish fillets (siikafile ruodoton)
2 potatoes
1 red onion
10 shallots
3 garlic cloves
1 table spoon olive oil (for the vegetables)
1/2 table spoon olive oil (for fish)
Salt
Pepper
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1. Chop onions and potatoes, peel shallots. When you chop onions and especially potatoes, try to make rather small and even pieces so that it cooks well and crispy. Put all in a big bowl.

2. Crush garlic cloves and add to the vegetable bowl. Stir them a little with a normal spoon. Add salt and pepper. Stir a bit more. Finally add 1 table spoon of olive oil and stir really well.

3. In a separate small bowl, put 1/2 table spoon olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir it well. Pour the mixture on the fish fillet, cover all its surface. The excess oil mixture could just flow down the fish surface, it’s fine.

4. Preheat the oven to 150C. Put a baking sheet on the oven tray. Put the fish fillet in the middle and the vegetable mix around it. Spread the vegetable mixture evenly on the tray, so that they all cook well at the same time. When the oven is warm enough, put the tray in the oven, in middle section. After this point, I started to watch carefully since it was the first time I baked this whitefish and it looked really delicate whereas potatoes and onions were not so delicate. After 10 minutes in the oven, I increased the heat to 160C. After 10 minutes more, I increased it to 170C and baked for about 5 minutes more. Finally, when I saw that all the pieces are baked well enough, I took it out of the oven.

I thought, if the potatoes or onions had not cooked well, I would take out the fish and continue cooking a little more but luckily everything went smoothly.

Hope you enjoy this recipe – and as usual, buy the fish from Kauppahalli!