This is one of my favorite dinner dishes. The pike-perch is lean fish. The potato, apple, mushroom, garlic and onion mixture is tasty and nutritious. Leek, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, lemon and broccolini make this dish extra yummy. The dish is filled with vitamins. Dill, lemon pepper, tarragon and chili are terrific for seasoning this dish.

This dish has lots of ingredients but is still quite easy to do. Just follow the recipe and you have an amazing fish dinner in less than 30 minutes! You don’t have to use all the ingredient in my list. You can choose the ones you love the most.

All my recipes are for two servings.

If you cook just for yourself, you can either do the recipe as it is and have a lovely meal for the next day too, or you can choose to use half of the amount of the ingredients in the recipe.

If you cook for four people, you can double everything except the spices. With spices it is best to taste how much is needed. Always taste while you cook. It is the only way to learn how much you want of each spice!

• 3 small potatoes
• 1 red onion
• 1 apple
• 4 garlic cloves
• 6 broccolini stems (also called baby broccoli)
• ½ small leek (the white part)
• 4 big, white mushrooms
• 3 twists from your black pepper mill
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon chili paste (from jar)
• 1 pike-perch fillet (or any white lean fish you love) without skin. 12-14 oz (340-400 g)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt-free lemon pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• 10 sun-dried tomato slices (from jar)
• 20 small capers (from jar)
• 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp dill

How to prepare:

Preheat the oven to 410 F (210 C).

Peel the potatoes and cut into halves. If you use big potatoes, cut them into 1,5” (4 cm) pieces. Remove the outer part of the onion skin. Cut the onion into wedges. Wash the apple and cut into wedges. Remove the skin from the garlic cloves. The easiest way is to crush the garlic lightly with the side of a knife. The skin comes then off nicely. Wash the leek and cut into thin slices. Wash the slices, so you get possible sand washed away. (Leek grows in sandy soil, so they can have some sand between the layers). Wash the mushrooms and cut them into smaller pieces.

Take an oven dish (I use a ceramic oven dish) and add the potatoes, onions, apple, garlic, leek and broccolini on the dish. Season with 1 tbsp olive oil, dried thyme, chili paste and black pepper. Put the dish in the oven for 23 minutes.

If the fish fillet is not cleaned, remove the fishbones. You can feel them with the tip of your fingers. Cut the fillet into 2-4 pieces. Take a non-stick frying pan. Heat up to medium heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 teaspoon of butter. Cook the fish fillet for 3 minutes. Turn the fish with a spatula and cook for 3 minutes. Season with salt-free lemon pepper and tarragon.

Take the fish pan form the stove and let it rest.

Check that the potatoes are soft. If not, put the oven dish back into the oven for 3 minutes. Take the oven pan from the oven and divide all the ingredients between two plates. Add the fish fillets on the plates. Decorate with capers and sun-dried tomato slices for extra flavor. Cut the lemon in half. Squeeze juice of half a lemon on the fish. Cut the other lemon half into slices and decorate the dish. Sprinkle dill on the dish.

Tip: If you have parmesan at home, add a few flakes on top of the salad for lovely taste.

Good to know:

You can troll pike-perch (also called Zander or European pike-perch) in many running waters in Central Finland. The size of this fish is usually 40-70 cm (16”-27”).

This species is quite similar to its North American cousin, Walleye. Like Walleye, pike-perch is a very popular game fish, and has been intentionally introduced in thousands of lakes in Europe outside of its native range. Preferring to live in lakes, rivers and streams, Zander have also been found in the Northeast Atlantic brackish coastal waters.

Pike perch is active in darkness and the best time to catch it is in the evenings and mornings.