Baked Basa in Butter Garlic Lemon Sauce

 

January 18

It doesn't feel like winter anymore. While I type, the blinds are drawn in the room, the fan is running on its maximum and I am wearing my summer pajamas, not to mention sipping on chilled lime juice as well. And on days like this, I miss the old 'gulabi thandi' days of Pune. January never felt this way before.

And I think it is due to this kind of weird winters we are having this time I do not feel like having the usual mach-bhat (fish - rice) fare on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong, I am an avid lover of Bengali food and nothing is more dear to me than a good Bengali meal. Still now a days I feel like trying out something light and quick. Not to mention cook something which gets my creative juices flowing especially in the Kitchen.  

I had a collaboration dish to prepare this week and I had some gorgeous Basa fillets from Fresh2Home sitting in my pantry which I was waiting to make into something unique. I grabbed this opportunity and decided to do some quick baking. Yes, once a non-baker, I am finding a lot of solace in baking these days. The anticipation of waiting to see how the dish turns out after it comes out from the oven is very exciting for me. And anyways even in Bengali cuisine we already are used to make a lot of steamed dishes, so nothing new for me, just the technique is a little different.

The dish I am going to talk about today is Baked Basa in Butter garlic and Lemon Sauce. Delicate Basa fish fillets are baked to perfection in a lemony butter sauce flavored with garlic and Rosemary. Its an under 30 minutes dish which is perfect for your date nights when you want to stir up something gourmet or even for your usual weekday lunch or dinner to just add a bit of pizzaz to the menu.

Now a dish which heavily depends on a butter sauce, needs to have a good quality butter to make the right texture for the sauce. By chance I came to know that President Butter which is a higher-end French butter that's widely available at American supermarkets is also available in India now on Amazon or BigBasket. If you are staying in US or even travelling to US, most of the times you will see the hotels, B&Bs would serve small chiplets of President Butter with the breakfast. And I was so used to it while I was staying there. After coming to India I had kind of not expected to find them there. And finally when I did , I was super surprised. President Butter reached out to me for a collaboration post and I think I can say this was one of my most memorable collaboration. Where even after the collaboration was over, I kept using the rest of the butter in various sweets and savoury dishes and I am in love with its beautiful flavour and texture. It's a solid beautiful butter with a nice mellow aftertaste. This is a lovely creamy smooth, cow’s milk butter with a nice light flavour, which compliments whatever I added it to. Also this butter comes in a foil wrapper and an outer box which helps in keeping the butter airtight and fresh for longer period.  I am absolutely in love with this butter! Checkout the pictures to get an idea how lovely even the color of the butter is.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 + 15 minutes (25 minutes)

Serves: 2 adults

Ingredients:

For Marination

• Basa Fillet -  2 to 4 
• Cracked Black Pepper - 1 tsp
• Salt - a pinch

For Sauce

• Onion -  1 small, finely diced
• Garlic - 3-4 cloves, minced
• Fresh Rosemary Sprig - 1
• Butter  (President Butter) - 3to 4 tbsp
• Chicken Broth - 1/2 cup
• Cherry Tomato / Grape Tomato - 1 cup, halved
• Lemon - 1/2, juiced
• Salt as per taste
• Sugar (optional) as per taste

Equipment:

• Non Stick pan
• Oven safe bowl
• Foil
• Toothpick
• Oven/ Microwave (convection mode)

Procedure 

1.  Clean and pat dry the Basa Fillets with a kitchen towel. Season them with salt, cracked black pepper and 1/2 tsp olive oil or any neutral smelling oil. Marinate for a couple of hours.

Tip: To add a nice garlicky flavor to the fish fillets, rub some halved fresh garlic or garlic powder over them. 

Note: Make sure there is no water in the fish fillets before marinating

2. Preheat oven to 220 Degrees Celsius or Microwave in Convection mode to 200 Degree Celsius. 

3. Now take a non stick pan and heat it on medium. Once the pan is hot add the butter. Let the butter melt.

4. Add the minced garlic to the butter and add a pinch of salt. The salt helps in bringing out the flavors of garlic in the butter.

5. Add the onion, rosemary sprig and a pinch of salt and sauté till translucent.

6. Now place the marinated fish in single layer on the sautéed onion and garlic. Turn the fish after a minute to cook the other side. Flame should be on medium.

Note: Do not overcook the fish fillets as they tend to dry up.

7. Now add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Adjust the salt level. If required you can also add a pinch of sugar at this stage. Fold in.

Tip: If you do not have chicken stock, you can use warm water as a substitute.

8. Add the halved Cherry tomatoes.

9. Now transfer the everything to a oven safe bowl. Cover it with a lid or foil. If putting a foil poke a few tiny holes with the toothpick.

10. Place the oven safe bowl in the pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes. After opening the oven door let it rest for a couple of minutes before taking out.

Note: Be careful while taking the bowl out as it will be very hot.

11. Top it with fresh parsley (optional) and serve it with buttered rice.

Checkout the video of the recipe here.