It’s official: Arctic char is a fantastic fish with absolutely delicious taste in any form of cooking. It is also one of the most stylish fish with the little pink polka dots on its skin.

 

I was actually looking for another kind of fish when I ended up with arctic char. I went to two market halls in Helsinki but was not really happy (also the prices were a bit too high to be honest). And just when I decided that it would be ok not to make it a fish day, I found the affordable arctic char in my local supermarket (K-market Kamppi).

 

I cooked and ate arctic char many times. But it was always fillet, never had the whole thing, I don’t think I even ever saw the whole thing before. It’s a beautiful fish.

 

 

This recipe is quite easy and fast. I always did this kind of fish cooking by using aluminium folio but this morning I was watching a video recipe by Rachel Khoo and saw that she oven-baked trout in a baking sheet package and so I wanted to try like this. You can use aluminium folio instead.

 

As my roommate put it, this is a very summery recipe, since there is a lot of lemon taste adding freshness. And even though it is very much stuffed and looks heavy, it really isn’t so.

 

Hope you try it, I really want arctic char, aka nieriä in Finnish, to be a very famous fish!

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Ingredients:

 

(serves 2-3 people — it is quite a big fish)
zest of half a lemon
1/2 tsp / 2.5 ml salt
a pinch of black pepper
4 tsp / 20 ml olive oil
1 whole arctic char (nieriä), cleaned
1 onion, cut in big slices
1 spring onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves (optional), cut in thin slices
4-5 slices of lemon
3-4 bay leaves

 

1 baking sheet and some string or 1 aluminium folio

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

 

2. In a small bowl, put lemon zest, salt, black pepper and olive oil and mix them well.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Put the fish on a baking sheet and marinate the skin and inside of the fish with the oily mixture.

 

 

 

 

4. Stuff the fish with slices and pieces of onion, spring onion and garlic. Add bay leaves (you can take them out right before you eat) and a few slices of lemon. I also put 2 lemon slices on top of the fish.

 

 

 

 

 

5. Pack the stuffed fish inside the baking sheet and tie two ends plus the middle with strings.

 

6. Put in the oven, in middle rack. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Done!