Oven Baked Whole Sea Bass

This is the first time that I baked a whole fish in the oven and I was pleasantly surprised that despite the high heat, the fish remained tender, moist and juicy! 

My 2 boys didn't like the taste and asked me to steam it with soya sauce next time! ;p So lucky for them that I served the fish with carbonara and some roasted sweet potatoes or they would have had to go hungry. Ho Ho...

The hubby, who is generally hard to please when it comes to food, polished off his fish and all I saw of his plate was fish bone and head (He had one whole fish to himself). Yay to that!

Oven Baked Whole Sea Bass (serves 2)

Ingredients:
1 whole sea bass (cleaned and dried with paper towel)
Sea salt
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 lemon (thinly sliced)
Light olive oil
Chicken rotisserie seasoning powder (optional, I added in some on a whim)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200deg C, top and bottom heat
2. Line your oven tray with aluminium foil, followed by baking paper
3. Make diagonal slits on both sides  of the sea bass so that the fish will cook easily
4. Sprinkle sea salt over fish as well as  in the cavity, and rub the fish to ensure salt is evenly distributed. If you have the rotisserie seasoning, you can now sprinkle it lightly on each side of the fish
5. Put 2-3 slices of lemon and 1 sprig of rosemary in fish cavity
6. Place remaining slices of lemon and rosemary on top of fish
7. Drizzle some olive oil over the fish 
8. Pop tray into oven (middle rack) to bake for 20 minutes
9. Test fish with a fork to ensure it is cooked. The flesh should be white and flake easily. 
10. Serve with a side of salad or pasta/potatoes

Note: I originally used 1 lemon for 2 whole fishes. The hubby suggested to add more lemon on the fish as those parts with lemon tasted more flavourful, hence I put one lemon in the above recipe.  :)

Enjoy!

For reference

Prepared fish

Packed in foil, refrigerated until it's time to cook dinner

Roasted sweet potatoes and carbonara served with the fish