Oven-Baked Pike with Sour Cream and Vegetables

Name: Oven-Baked Pike with Sour Cream and Zucchini
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Pike, a piece of a large fish 1.2 kg (about 700 g of clean fillet); Young zucchini 1; Ripe tomato 1; Hot chili pepper 1 pod; Cherry tomatoes 6-8; Fresh basil 2-3 sprigs; Butter 1 tbsp, for greasing the dish; Black peppercorns 4-5; Coriander seeds 0.5 tsp; Coarse salt 0.5 tsp (3 g); Lemon juice 1-2 tsp; Rich homemade sour cream 0.5 cup (100 g); Sugar 0.5 tsp (2 g); Ground sweet paprika 0.25 tsp; Salt a pinch; Ground chili a pinch, optional

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1 h 30 mins

How long to bake pike in the oven?

Set the oven to 200°C and bake the pike pieces, vegetables and sour cream sauce uncovered for about 50 minutes, counting at least 30 of them from the boil of the sauce. This is a freshwater fish, so shortening that time is a bad idea. The dish needs 15–20 minutes to come up to a boil, so expect up to 1 hour in total.

Oven-baked pike with sour cream and vegetables is a traditional dish in our home. As a rule, we use fillets from a fairly large fish, one that is impossible to cook whole. Usually, after a successful fishing trip, a big pike is cleaned and cut into pieces of 1-1.5 kg. When needed, a piece is thawed and used for home cooking.

Freshwater pike is a common predator, adapted to life in rather harsh conditions. Pike is a coveted trophy for anglers and a target of deliberate fishing, although quite often it is caught by accident while fishing for other predators. There are plenty of legends and tales about pike. First of all, the fairy tale of Emelya. Or the charming story of Frederick II’s giant pike, which has been recognized as a forgery. Or Boris Godunov’s unproven 200-year-old pike.

Pike meat contains very little fat, which makes it dietary but, unfortunately, rather “dry” and dense. People often say that pike meat is very “protein-rich”, and that is true: the protein content of the fillet can be 20% or more. The meat of a large fish, although tasty, has noticeable small bones that are easy to remove while eating. Small pike, if anyone takes it into their head to catch and eat young pike, is quite tender and the bones are practically unnoticeable.

From a culinary point of view, pike is an ideal fish for pike cutlets. Surprisingly, modern meat grinders do not grind up the bones when mincing fish: they collect in front of the plate and are easily removed. Braised fish, whatever the recipe, turns out great with pike meat, and the bones practically dissolve into it. A few times we have also cooked fish Chinese-style, pike fillet in chunks with plenty of spices and sauce, an amazing dish with a soft and pleasant taste.

Oven-baked pike with sauce and vegetables is easy to make, just like pike in sour cream.

To keep the pike juicy, the fish is brushed with a sauce based on rich homemade sour cream before cooking. The sauce crust keeps all the moisture and tasty juices inside the pieces of fish. Sour cream is, in essence, a fairly fatty fermented dairy product that bakes easily and forms a crust. Brushing food with sour cream before baking, or even baking it right in sour cream, is a widely used technique. A very famous dish is crucian carp in sour cream, and just the memory of it sends shivers down my spine.

More with pike

Chinese-Style Fish: Pike Fillet in a Spicy Sauce with Vegetables

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Stuffed Pike

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Pike or Cod Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

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Pike Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

2 servings

Fish and vegetables
Pike, a piece of a large fish 1.2 kg (about 700 g of clean fillet)
Young zucchini 1
Ripe tomato 1
Hot chili pepper 1 pod
Cherry tomatoes 6-8
Fresh basil 2-3 sprigs
Butter 1 tbsp, for greasing the dish
Spices
Black peppercorns 4-5
Coriander seeds 0.5 tsp
Coarse salt 0.5 tsp (3 g)
Lemon juice 1-2 tsp
Sour cream sauce
Rich homemade sour cream 0.5 cup (100 g)
Sugar 0.5 tsp (2 g)
Ground sweet paprika 0.25 tsp
Salt a pinch
Ground chili a pinch, optional

Step-by-step recipe

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Ingredients

As I said, this dish is made from pieces of a large fish.
For a dinner for two, take a piece of pike weighing 1.2-1.3 kg. After waste is removed, you will have about 0.7 kg of clean fillet.
Prepare fresh vegetables (a zucchini and tomatoes), a hot chili pod, basil, and rich homemade sour cream.
These vegetables have long stopped being seasonal and are sold all year round; it is only a question of price. Zucchini with tomato is always a wonderful combination. A warm homemade zucchini and tomato salad, with herbs and garlic, is easy and delicious, so give it a try. This pairing is also typical of many sauces, for example pasta with vegetables. The hot pepper adds not so much heat to the dish as a noticeable aroma.

Fillet and spices

Wash the piece of pike thoroughly to remove the slime, of which there is a lot, especially after the fish has been thawed.
With a sharp knife, cut the fillets off the backbone together with the fins and skin.
Cut off the fins, especially the dorsal one, which is full of small bones. If possible, remove any large visible bones.
Cut the fillet off the skin and cut each fillet in half. You should end up with four skinless pieces of fillet.
In a mortar, combine 4-5 black peppercorns, 0.5 tsp coriander seeds and 0.5 tsp coarse salt (3 g). Grind the spices to a powder.
Sprinkle the pike fillet pieces with the mixture to taste.
Don’t try to use up all the spice mix: 1-2 pinches will be needed for the vegetables, and it’s better to save the rest for other dishes.
Sprinkle the fish with 1-2 tsp lemon juice for a short, light marinade.

Vegetables and sour cream sauce

While the fillet marinates, prepare a small ceramic or glass baking dish with a rim. Grease the inside of the dish with butter.
Slice the zucchini into very thin rounds, the way vegetables are sliced for ratatouille. A young zucchini doesn’t need to be peeled.
Slice one ripe tomato into thin slices, without peeling it or removing the seeds.
Remove the seeds and white membranes from the chili pod and cut it into slices or rings.
Arrange the zucchini and tomato in the bottom of the dish, mixed together, covering the whole bottom with vegetables. Lay the chili on top of the vegetables to make a sort of cushion of vegetables.
Sprinkle the vegetables with 1-2 pinches of the leftover spice mix.
Mix half a cup of rich homemade sour cream (100 g) with a pinch of salt, a quarter teaspoon of ground sweet paprika and 0.5 tsp sugar (2 g). Stir thoroughly. If you like, add a pinch of ground chili.
Using a brush, coat the vegetables with the sour cream sauce, evenly and without gaps.
Place the pieces of pike fillet on top of the vegetables.
Coat the fish with the rest of the sour cream sauce. Be sure to fill the gaps and the edges near the rim. All of the sauce should be used up so the fish turns out juicy.

Baking and serving

Preheat the oven to 200°C and put in the dish with the fish and vegetables, uncovered.
Bake for about 50 mins, and no less than 30 mins from the moment the sauce starts to bubble.
A separate word about baking time. Pike is a freshwater fish and, unfortunately, can be a source of certain unpleasant troubles. That is why the minimum cooking time from when the sauce starts to bubble is 30 mins. Don’t take risks. The fish, vegetables and sauce take 15-20 mins to heat up until the sauce starts to bubble, so the total baking time is up to 1 hour.
In that time the vegetables and fish cook completely, and the sour cream sauce on the fish bakes into a golden crust. A little liquid will collect in the dish, and that is normal.
Take the fish out of the oven.
Carefully transfer the pieces of fillet to a plate. Spread the vegetables evenly on serving plates and put the pieces of fish on top.
Add a few halved cherry tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. You can also add a bit more pepper to the fish if you like. I recommend spooning 1-2 tbsp of the liquid left in the dish over the pike.
Serve the baked pike right away while it’s hot: as it cools, the fish becomes rather tough.
As a side dish, in addition to the vegetables baked with the fish, you can make boiled potatoes or fried rice.