Pike is a cunning predatory fish that fishermen hunt with special pleasure. Having obtained it, they gladly carry the trophy to the house, imagining what delicious dishes can be made from it. One of the most delicious, worthy of the holiday table, fish dishes - pike, baked in the oven as a whole. If you know the subtleties of cooking this culinary masterpiece and a good recipe, then a positive result is guaranteed.
Cooking Features
Pike is a special fish, and you need to cook it in a special way, taking into account several important points.
- Pike always smells of mud, and the larger the trophy, the more tangible the smell. You can reduce it if you soak the fish before cooking in milk. Pike, baked whole, is a royal dish, and if you don't want to spoil it, it makes sense not to save on milk. Soaking pike in milk takes several hours. Do it better after it has been cleaned.
- Fragrant herbs that cannot be regretted will help neutralize a not too pleasant smell. Lemon also helps in solving this problem.
- Even when cooking pike in the oven, it must be cleaned in its entirety. And it should be done very carefully. First you need to clean the scales with a special device, then make cuts at the head and separate it from the carcass, at the same time removing the insides. If the pike is not too large, it is better to leave the head, but the inside is still to be removed by making a cut in the abdomen. After that, the pike should be well washed and make several oblique cuts in the area of the ridge, crushing the bone.
- Bake the whole pike only when it is fresh. If you decide to postpone the cooking of a fishing trophy for later and freeze the fish, then the only dish that can be made from pike is fish cutlets. When baking, this fish will be too dry.
Pike can be very different in size. You can find a pike with a length of only 30 cm, but there are also specimens reaching 180 cm. It is clear that for baking in the oven, the specimens are not too large, up to 55 centimeters. Their weight usually does not exceed one and a half kilograms. Even smaller specimens, ideal for baking whole, weigh from 0, 5 to 0, 8 kg, their length is, as a rule, 35-45 cm.
Pike baked entirely in the sleeve
Composition:
- pike - 1, 0-1, 5 kg;
- lemon - 1/4 pcs .;
- bulb onion - 100 g;
- butter - 40 g;
- complex seasoning for fish - 10 g;
- mayonnaise - 100 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Prepare the pike by cleaning and washing it. Pat dry with a napkin. Rub the seasonings. Coat mayonnaise and place in the fridge for a few hours to marinate a little.
- Lemon cut into quarters circles, not too thin (1-2 mm thick). Put it in the cut on the carcass pike.
- Slice chilled butter in small, thin pieces. Put the pieces of butter next to the pieces of lemon.
- Carefully place the fish in a roasting sleeve, tie it on both sides. The incision on the pike should look up. Fork a few holes in the sleeve for air to escape through them.
- Put the pike in a pan or on a baking sheet. If you have to bend it a little, that's okay.
- Place in an oven heated to 200 degrees and bake for an hour.
Take the pike out of the sleeve, put it on the dish, decorate with lemon slices and parsley sprigs.
Pike baked in foil with sour cream
Composition:
- pike - 0, 5-0, 8 kg;
- sour cream - 120 g;
- lemon juice - 30 ml;
- vegetable oil - 50 ml;
- dried parsley - 10 g;
- fresh parsley - 20 g;
- seasoning for fish - 5 g.
Method of preparation:
- Clear the scales from the pike by cutting the belly, remove the insides, cut the fins. Rinse and pat dry.
- Rub the outside and inside with fish seasoning. If you have it without salt, first mix the seasoning with salt.
- Sprinkle the fish well with lemon juice and leave for 2 hours in a cool place.
- Wash and chop fresh parsley. Mix it with dried parsley. Put this mixture in sour cream, stir.
- Thickly coat the pike with sour cream.
- Spread the foil, brush it with a thick layer of oil.
- Place a pike on the foil and wrap it in several layers.
- Place on a baking sheet, place in the oven and bake at 200 degrees for half an hour.
- Unroll the foil and bake for another 10 minutes.
Put the finished pike on the dish. Next put baked potatoes. Decorate the dish with fresh herbs.
Pike baked in the oven with vegetables
Composition:
- pike - 0, 8-1, 2 kg;
- onions - 0, 2 kg;
- carrots - 100 g;
- garlic - 2 cloves;
- flour - 20 g;
- sour cream - 0, 2 kg;
- ground black pepper - 2-3 g;
- coriander - 2-3 g;
- lemon - 0, 5 pcs .;
- fresh basil - 20 g;
- fresh parsley - 20 g;
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Gut and wash the pike, after cleaning it of its scales. Blot with a kitchen towel.
- Peel and grate the carrots. If you have a grater for Korean salads, it is better to use it.
- Peel and chop the bulbs.
- Squeeze juice out of half a lemon, sprinkle a pike with it from all sides and wait 20 minutes.
- Mix sour cream with pepper, salt and coriander, set aside half of this mixture, coat the rest with pike. Give it to roast for 30 minutes.
- Chop small greens of basil and parsley, mix with the remaining sour cream. Add flour, mix well and fill the pike with this mixture.
- Place half the carrot and onion on the foil, put the pike on top. Put the remaining vegetables on it. Wrap the pike in foil so that the vegetables are from the bottom and top.
- Place the foil-wrapped pike on a baking sheet.
- Place the baking tray in a preheated oven to 200 degrees. Bake 40-50 minutes.
When you lay out a pike on a dish to serve, do not forget to put on it and around the vegetables with which it was baked. Baked vegetables, potatoes, buckwheat porridge will suit this dish as a side dish.
Pike baked in the oven with potatoes
Composition:
- pike - 1, 0-1, 5 kg;
- potatoes - 1 kg;
- bulb onion - 0, 3 kg;
- sour cream - 0.5 l;
- butter - 100 g;
- vegetable oil - 50 ml;
- ground black pepper - 2-3 g;
- paprika - 5 g;
- salt - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Rub a pike prepared and soaked in milk with a mixture of salt, paprika and pepper. If desired, in this mixture, you can add herbs to taste. Be sure to make oblique cuts on the spine to crush bones and make the pike flexible.
- Roll the pike with a ring and put it in a greased form with a small amount of vegetable oil.
- Melt the butter.
- Peel the potatoes, cut the tubers into several large pieces (young potatoes of small size can be left intact). Put the potatoes in butter and stir until all the pieces are covered with them.
- Put the potato in a form where the pike already lies, spreading it around the pike and in the middle of the circle formed by it.
- Place the form in a preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.
- In the remaining vegetable oil fry finely chopped onion, mix it with sour cream.
- Put sour cream on pike and potatoes. Continue baking at the same temperature for another 40 minutes.
This dish is served hot. An additional side dish is not required.
Pike baked in the oven looks appetizing. It turns juicy and tasty. At the same time, she prepares simply enough to cook it for lunch or dinner on the same day as she became the trophy of the fisherman.
