Baked Hake with Green Sauce

Name: Baked Hake with Green Sauce
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: parsley sprigs; 2–3 sprigs lemon thyme; 1 lemon grass stalk, trimmed and thinly sliced; piece of green chilli (optional); 3 spring onions, trimmed and sliced; 8 mint leaves; small bunch of coriander (about 1 oz / 30 g) parsley sprigs; small bunch of coriander (about 1 oz / 30 g) parsley sprigs; 4 hake cutlets, 6–7 oz / 170–200 g each; extra virgin olive oil; pinch of sugar; freshly ground black pepper; ½ tsp coarse sea salt; 2–3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped; 1–2 tbsp warm water; 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Times Cookbook

By Frances Bissell

Published 1995

About

Once when I cooked this, I served it with steamed spinach and mashed potatoes. The dish has a slightly Basque feel to it and a fruity Jurançon Sec 1990 is the perfect accompaniment, as it is also to the creamy blue cheese from St Agur, which followed the dish.

Ingredients

4 hake cutlets, 6–7 oz / 170–200 g each
extra virgin olive oil

Fish course
Pescatarian
Gluten-free

Method

First make the sauce. Put the spring onions in a food processor or mortar, together with the mint leaves, coriander leaves stripped from the stems, parsley and lemon thyme. Add the lemon grass, chilli (if using), garlic, salt, pepper and sugar. Pound or process until you have a dark green mass. Blend in the lemon juice, oil and water to make a sauce-like paste.

Brush an ovenproof dish w