Every dish named a tagine sounds exotic and delicious, doesn’t it? This fish tagine has a classic Moroccan flavour that no actual tagine is required. Confused? Bear with me and read on.
How big should be the sea bass and how long to marinate?
First, here’s a simple explanation of tagine that I learned from a Moroccan cookbook.
What is Tagine?
Tagine is an earthenware pot, and the dish cooked in it also share the same name. Tagine is great for cooking meat and fish since its conical lid allows the rising steam to condense at the top, then it falls back to the dish, keeping the ingredients constantly basted and moist.
But nowadays, cooking in tagine is a rare find. When Curry Boy and I went to a Moroccan restaurant in Granada, the server presented the tagine with the lid lifted in front of us, but hardly any steam coming out of it and the pot was not hot. Was it really cooked in a tagine? I bet not. It was more like a presentation thing.
Anyway, however you name the dish, this is a classic Moroccan fish flavoured with chermoula, a typical North African condiment.
A Few Notes Before You Cook
- How Big Should be the Sea Bass: Ideally, it is to serve each person with a whole sea bass to avoid any argument (too delicious lol), but I could only get a big one, 450 g, so Curry Boy and I shared it. 300 g should be a good size.
- How Long to Marinate: Since fish’s flesh is less dense than meat, the marinating time is hence shorter. As a general rule, 30 minutes should be fine. The longer you leave the marinade on a fish, the outer part will be more flavourful. And, if the surface area is increased, it means more area is marinated, so it’s more tasty. I had marinated mine overnight, but it was not noticeable that the flavour was ‘in-depth’.
Ingredients
Serves 2
- 450 g whole sea bass (or any white fish), gutted and scaled
- 2 heaped tbsp of chermoula
- 40 g preserved lemon, rinsed and finely diced
- ½ lemon
- 300 g potatoes, cut into chunks
- ½ red pepper, halved
- ½ green pepper, halved
- 150 g Brussels sprouts, trimmed
- 2 medium ripe tomatoes, quartered
How to Make Moroccan Fish Tagine with Chermoula and Roasted Vegetables
- Rinse the sea bass and pat dry with kitchen paper. Score it on both sides to increase the surface area that will let the flavour penetrate through.
- Mix the chermoula with preserved lemon, then apply half of it onto the sea bass. Don’t forget to put some inside the scored flesh! Then wrap the fish with cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The longer, the better. (See above notes)
- Boil a pot of salted water to parboil the potatoes for 5 minutes. It can assure you a crispy potato skin, but it’s not necessary. Drain well. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180ºC fan mode.
- Then, toss the peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and Brussels sprouts with the remaining chermoula mixture. Dress in more olive oil if needed. Place them on a lined tray and first roast for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, slice the lemon and place on top of the sea bass. Wrap it in a foil parcel.
- After the vegetables have been roasting for 15 minutes, add the sea bass to roast for 12-15 minutes until just cooked through. In my case, a 450 g sea bass took me 14 minutes.
More Moroccan Easy and Tasty Recipes
- Roasted Peppers with Preserved Lemon and Butter Beans
- Moroccan Zaalouk (Aubergine and Tomato Vegan Spread)
- Moroccan Mezze Recipe: Courgette and Egg Salad with Cumin
- 5-Ingredient Easy Harissa Recipe from a Moroccan
- Easy Chermoula Recipe from a Moroccan
Behind the Scene
Handling a whole fish is still not my thing – stinky, fishy, cruel, though tasty afterwards – such a complicated feeling.
I stared at its popping out rolled white eyes, rinsed the dead body with three fingers, rubbed it with chermoula, then wrapped it and chilled overnight.
Before doing anything else, I could only wash may hands, disinfect all the handles I touched, including phone, worktop, trash bin…… Then I was relieved.
Perhaps it’s one of the reasons why I prefer veg, because I don’t make that suffer. No pain.
But ironically, I enjoyed the fish so much that all the flesh went into my tummy (including the cheeks), and only the head and bones were left. It brings back my memory that there were dinners with my relatives, nothing left on the plate, not even a single fish bone. An absurd level of eating fish.
I never wanted to make classic Cantonese steamed fish at home. I wanted to try something new. And this 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝑻𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆 was a success.
