Baked Basa Fillets with garlic & thyme
These baked basa fillets are great, they make a super cheap mid-week meal and take very little cooking ability to throw together.
At the start of this term I bought a bag of frozen basa fillets at Aldi – mostly to experiment with panko and to see if I could replicate the token mass produced breaded fillet (A particular previous favourite of ) After a couple of attempts I decided just to bake a basa fillet in a simple marinade, the end result blew my mind.
I was shocked to discover that it was just as tasty as the breaded fillet and much healthier. They’re great with couscous, I photographed this recipe at the same time alongside my couscous recipe and it complimented it perfectly (enough that I ate both fillets in a single sitting) I’m sure they’d also be really great alongside just a salad if you were looking for a super healthy meal.
If you’re using frozen fillets it’s advisable to defrost them beforehand, this can be done easily by putting them into a sandwich bag and then adding that into a bowl of warm water. They’ll generally take about 10-15 minutes until they are defrosted completely.
Baked Basa Fillets Ingredients
- 1Tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp chopped thyme
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 defrosted basa fillets
Baked Basa Fillets Recipe
1) Preheat your oven to 180c. Slice your garlic finely after that pluck the leaves off of your fresh thyme. Mix the garlic, thyme, olive oil and lemon juice together.
2) Put your fillets onto some aluminium foil and then drizzle the marinade over the fillets.
3) Wrap your fillets up nice and tight! Put the parcel into the oven.
4) Bake for 20 minutes, when that amount of time has elapsed remove them and check the thickest part of the fillet to make sure they’re cooked through.
5) Plate up your baked basa fillets! As mentioned before I recommend to have them with couscous, but you can have them anyway you want. Be sure to spoon the delicious sauce from the parcel onto your plate.
I live alone so I only cook for one. Here is something I tried today that worked out quite well. Using a throw-away aluminum foil tin usually designed for loaf cakes, I pour in about half a cup of olive oil, added a pile of mayonnaise until it was well mixed and looked creamy, added some lemon juice, garlic powder and a good dose of curry powder. I then lightly sprinkled some cornstarch over top of it and made sure it was fully mixed in. I washed a partially frozen Basa fillet and dried it before putting it in the container. I soaked in the mixture until both sides were well covered. I then put the container on a cookie pan in the totally cold oven, set the oven to cook at 350 degrees F for about half an hour. It came out a golden brown. I put it on a plate, scooped all of the mayonnaise mixture out of the separated oil and used it to flavour the finished fillet. It was quite delicious and I only regret that I ate it all before adding the vegetables that are currently boiling on the stove. You will have to use your own brain to figure what is best for the size of family you are feeding but if you like a mild white fish and curry this gives you a most enjoyable meal.