How To Make Mayan Inspired Baked Whole Fish

This Mayan Inspired Baked Whole Fish recipe comes from the Yucatan and incorporates Red Recado Paste and Mexican Pink Onion. The recipes for those can be found at the respective links. This makes a delightfully vibrant and beautiful dish to serve. This will work with most any cleaned and scaled fish but our favorite is Black Cod.

This recipe is naturally gluten free and low cholesterol.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Mayan Inspired Baked Whole Fish:

Ingredients

• 1 Whole fish, cleaned and scaled (approx 4 lbs)
• Banana Leaves or foil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/2 C Orange Juice
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1 Tbls Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 C Red Recado Paste (more or less)
• 2 Tbls Mexican Oregano
• 2 Tomatoes, sliced
• 1 Large Habañero, cut into strips
• 1 C Mexican Pink Onion

Start With A Large Sheet Of Foil

We start with a whole fish, cleaned and scaled. We use approximately 4 pound Black Cod, also known as Sablefish. This is a very oily and forgiving fish and always comes out great. You can use whatever fish you want, just be sure to remove the scales. Start by putting a large sheet of foil on a baking dish. It needs to be big enough to wrap all the way around the fish and seal.

You may need to join two pieces of foil together to make it big enough. To do this, fold the two edges together a couple times to join the pieces with a tight seal. This is kind of an imitation of wrapping the fish in a banana leaf, which would be great if you can get some. To use banana leaf, cut large pieces and overlap layers. Put some pieces of string under the banana leaf so you can tie it shut later.

Make 3 Cut On Each Side Of the Fish

Cut down to the bone across the length of the fish on both sides.

Sprinkle Salt and Pepper

Lay the fish on the foil and sprinkle salt and pepper all over the outside and inside of the fish.

Mix the Red Recado Paste

Now we want to get our Red Recado Paste ready for the fish. The link will take you to the recipe for the paste. We are going to thin it with fruit juice and vinegar so it spreads over the fish and adds moisture while cooking. We like to use a pint jar with the orange and lime juice and then a little vinegar. Add the Red Recado Paste, put the lid on the jar and shake vigorously to mix. You could also just do this in a bowl.

Pour Over the Fish

We are going to pour the resultant mixture all over the outside and inside of the fish. This will be messy. Make sure the foil is lifted a bit around the edges so the liquid pools in the bottom of the pan and doesn’t run all over your kitchen. Use a fork to get the chunks out of the bottom of the jar and then spread those over the fish, inside and outside. Try to get all the chunks, even if you don’t use all the liquid. The size of your roasting pan will help determine how much of the liquid you use.

Add Mexican Oregano and Tomato Slices

Now we sprinkle the whole thing with Mexican Oregano. Place the tomato slices alongside the fish on both sides. These will provide yet more moisture to help steam this fish, as well as adding some color to the dish.

Sprinkle With Habañero Pieces

A little hot pepper is going to give us a little zing and more color in our baked whole fish. Habañero is the pepper of the Yucatan and either red or yellow habañero would be appropriate. Any other red hot pepper, such as serrano, thai or fresno would also be fine for this. We can grow serranos in our greenhouse so that is our go-to pepper. Cut them in large chunks and then sprinkle over the fish and tomatoes.

Mexican Pink Onion

Finally we want to scatter some of our Mexican Pink Onion over everything. The link goes to the recipe for Mexican Pink Onion. The colors really pop when you add the pink to it. This will add some acidic brightness to the dish.

More Salt and Pepper

Before we seal up the banana leaf or foil, sprinkle a generous amount of salt and pepper over everything. Seal the foil by bringing the ends up, folding the sides together and rolling the seam down. You want to seal in as much moisture as you can.

Bake at 450°

Our fish goes into a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes and then we flip it over, cook it 15 minutes more, flip it again and 10 more minutes for a total cooking time of 40 minutes. Remove the baked whole fish from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. After the baked whole fish has cooled, carefully open the foil, the steam will be hot!

Serve

To serve, lift the top portion of fish off the bone and onto the plate. Then remove the bone and serve the bottom portion of fish. Where the fins attach there will be extra bones.

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