Oven-Baked Red Ocean Perch

Name: Oven-Baked Ocean Perch with Coriander and Lemon
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Ocean perch 2 whole fish; Lemon 1; Olive oil 1 tbsp; Coriander seeds 1 scant tsp; Sea salt 1 scant tsp (4 g); Black or mixed peppercorns 3–4

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1 h 30 mins

There’s hardly an angler who hasn’t caught a river perch at least once in their life. The striped bandit is everywhere and will bite on just about any tackle.

Ocean perch, or rather the many different species of ocean perch, don’t live in our waters. But you can always buy it in the shops — frozen. Ocean perch is also called sebastes, which sounds a lot like the familiar name “sea bass” — another sea fish, several varieties of which are sold here. Ocean perch are usually easy to recognise by their red-orange colour.

Most often you’ll find small ocean perch in the shops, weighing 300–400 g, although in the oceans they catch fish of up to 20–25 kg.

To my taste, the simplest and easiest way to cook ocean perch is to fry it. Our usual go-to ocean perch dish for breakfast is breaded fried perch. Sometimes, when there’s time to cook, we bake it — this oven-baked ocean perch recipe is a little more involved and takes some preparation.

Ocean perch flesh has very few bones and plenty of protein. Even in ancient times, physicians recommended perch meat to the sick.

Cooking ocean perch usually doesn’t call for complicated or rare ingredients — it’s all much simpler. Salt and black pepper are enough, plus a little special something that gives the flavour a particular kick. Then the fish is brushed with oil and baked.

As the main aromatic spice for baking ocean perch, we usually use coriander seeds. In cooking, coriander is used either as young leaves, known as cilantro, or as seeds — ground peppercorn-like grains. Coriander is considered one of the best seasonings for pork, but it goes perfectly with fish too.

Baked perch is an uncomplicated dish, simple even. You can cook perch in the oven in just an hour and a half, including preparation and baking.

Ingredients

2 servings

Ocean perch 2 whole fish
Lemon 1
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds 1 scant tsp
Sea salt 1 scant tsp (4 g)
Black or mixed peppercorns 3–4

Step-by-step recipe

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Preparing the fish

Thaw the fish beforehand. It’s enough to move the perch from the freezer to the fridge the evening before or well in advance: the fish will thaw properly and won’t leak.

Scale the ocean perch with a knife. Unlike river perch, ocean perch are very easy to scale. You can leave the fins on, but remember that perch fins are very spiky: if you prick yourself, the spot will hurt for a long time.
Ocean perch are usually sold headless and gutted; you just need to slit the belly open and clean out the remains of the dark membrane lining the cavity.
Score the perch crosswise on both sides down to the backbone — 3–4 cuts are enough.

Spices

Prepare the spices. For two ocean perch you need a scant teaspoon each of coriander seeds and salt. We traditionally salt fish with sea salt, though it doesn’t really matter. Add 3–4 black or mixed peppercorns. Crush the spices in a mortar, not too finely.
Rub the prepared ocean perch with the spice mixture and sprinkle with a little lemon juice.
Put the fish on a plate and cover with cling film. Leave the fish for half an hour.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line the bottom of a baking dish with a few thin slices of lemon. With the lemon underneath, the fish won’t stick to the dish. Besides, the lemon juice flavours the liquid that forms during baking, and it can be used as a sauce for the fish.
Lay the perch on the lemon slices, first removing (if you like) any large bits of coriander from the surface of the fish. Brush the fish with olive oil — 1 tbsp is enough.
Put the dish with the red perch into the preheated oven and bake for 30–40 minutes. That’s quite enough time for the dish to be ready. Still, it’s worth checking and adjusting the baking time if needed. My own preference: better for the perch to be slightly overdone than underdone.

Serving

Lay lemon slices on a plate. Or, alternatively, fry a few thin lemon slices in a hot dry pan.
Place the baked perch on top of the lemon and pour over the sauce that formed during baking.

Calories and macros

230 kcal

Serving ≈ 180 g

Protein31 g56% of kcal
Fat10 g41% of kcal
Carbs2 g4% of kcal

100 g128 kcalProtein 17.3 gFat 5.6 gCarbs 1.2 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

Which perch to buy

Ordinary frozen ocean perch of 300–400 g each will do — headless and gutted, with red-orange skin. Two fish make two servings.

Not just perch

Readers bake sea bass and pike-perch the same way as the perch: the method is simple, with nothing unnecessary. For pike-perch you can use fewer spices, as it has a flavour of its own. There’s also a separate recipe: oven-baked sea bass.

Have your own trick for this recipe?

Questions and answers

How long to bake ocean perch in the oven?

30–40 minutes at 180°C. The time depends on your oven and the size of the fish, so check for doneness: better slightly overdone than underdone.

How to bake frozen ocean perch?

Thaw it first: move the fish from the freezer to the fridge the evening before. That way it thaws evenly and doesn’t leak, and then you follow the recipe.

What spices go with ocean perch?

Salt, black pepper and coriander seeds, crushed in a mortar not too finely, plus a little lemon juice are enough. Coriander goes perfectly with fish.

How to bake ocean perch fillets in the oven?

The same way: rub with the spices, sprinkle with lemon, lay on lemon slices and brush with oil. Fillets are thinner than whole fish and cook faster — about 15–20 minutes.

How to cook ocean perch in an air fryer?

Prepare the fish the same way, with the spices and lemon, and cook at 180°C for about 20–25 minutes, until golden. The exact time depends on your air fryer and the size of the fish.

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