m. c. de marco: The New Kitchen Cookbook

Stuffed Whiting

I significantly simplifed Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for Stuffed Baked Whiting. I also misconstrued it as a recipe for 1 lb. whiting when it was actually for 4 lbs. whiting, so my version kicks it up a couple more notches, as it were. As my whitings were small and didn’t have much of a cavity to them, most of the stuffing ended up on top.

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lbs. dressed whiting
  • olive oil
  • ½ c. onions, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, diced
  • 2 slices bread for breadcrumbs
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • ¼ tsp. black pepper
  • dash cayenne pepper
  • 1 T. lemon juice
  • ⅛ c. white cooking wine
  • 2 T. capers
  • Essence of Emeril to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
  2. Toast the bread in the oven and chop up into breadcrumbs.
  3. Fry onions in oil briefly, then add the (normal) spices and breadcrumbs. Optionally, let it cool.
  4. Oil fish and a baking dish. Rub Essence into fish.
  5. Stuff fish with breadcrumb mixture. Top with remaining mixture and capers.
  6. Cover with tin foil and bake 30-35 minutes.

Variants

I forgot to Essence the fish until everything else was in the pan, so I sprinkled a lot on top instead. This is much more Essence than the original recipe called for, but Peter liked it that way.

The original recipe included real lemon, generous parsley, butter, and bell pepper.

I suspect this would work with other white fish. For fillets, reduce the baking time to 15–20 minutes.