Whole flounder with ratatouille

Bite 26/11/2012

Nadia Lim

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Serves 4

A whole fish, cooked and served as-is, is very normal in France. I love eating fish whole, as you don’t waste anything — the skin is delicious. Flounder is a great fish — an abundant, sustainable species, they require no preparation (no scaling or gutting) and one fish is the perfect portion-size per person.

Ingredients

4	Whole flounders, medium size
1	Lemon
1 tbsp	Thyme leaf, chopped

Ratatouille

2 tbsp	Oil
2 cloves	Garlic, minced
½	Baby onion, finely chopped
½	Eggplant, or one small eggplant, cut into small dice
1 punnet	Cherry tomatoes
1	Red capsicum, cut into small dice
2	Courgettes, cut into small dice
2 tsp	White wine vinegar, (or other similar)
1 handful	Basil leaves, torn

Directions

Heat oven to 200 degC.
Place each flounder on a large rectangle of tinfoil. Squeeze over lemon juice, drizzle with a little olive oil or dot with butter, and sprinkle over a pinch of thyme leaves.
Fold tinfoil up to completely cover the fish and form tight packages. Bake for 15 minutes until fish is just cooked.
To make the ratatouille, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and saute garlic and onion until soft.
Add eggplant and remaining olive oil and continue to cook a further 5 minutes until eggplant is coated in olive oil and cooked through.
Add tomatoes, capsicum, courgettes, vinegar, the remaining thyme and a splash of water. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss with basil leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Serve one whole fish per plate/person, topped with the ratatouille.