Here’s a very simple recipe for baked turbot with a delicious pilpil sauce. Turbot is a fish that would never win a beauty contest, and it’s unlikely to win an ugly contest either, because monkfish will always be there to remind it that it’s second best. But when it comes to its culinary merits, things change, as its meat is highly prized, especially if we’re talking about wild turbot.
This is a very gelatinous fish that releases juice as it bakes, which will greatly enrich its bed of potatoes and onions. Once the turbot is baked, we make a Bilbao-style sauce with oil, garlic, chili pepper, and vinegar, and finally we combine a pilpil with the sauce and the gelatinous juices from the turbot itself. This wonderful pilpil will take the recipe to another level and enhance its flavor. I assure you that you will be licking your fingers.
How to prepare the perfect baked turbot
Easy 60 minutes 4
- 1 turbot weighing approximately 2 kilograms
- 6 potatoes
- extra virgin olive oil
- Añana salt
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 cayenne pepper
- 1 glass of txakoli
The first step in making a spectacular baked turbot is to prepare the garnish. In this case, it will be a bed of panadera potatoes. Preheat the oven to 180º with heat from above and below. While it is heating up, peel the potatoes and cut them into slices about 5 millimeters thick. Once this is done, grease the bottom of a baking tray with extra virgin olive oil and spread the bed of panadera potatoes over the surface. Add a pinch of Añana salt and bake at 180º until the garnish begins to brown, about 15 minutes.
Next, remove the tray with the potatoes from the oven and place the turbot on top. Sprinkle some Añana salt on the surface of the turbot and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Do not make the typical superficial cuts in the skin and flesh of the turbot, as this will only cause it to dry out inside. It will be much juicier without the cuts. Finally, sprinkle a glass of txakoli over the top and place the turbot in the oven.
How long does it take to roast a turbot in the oven so that it turns out perfectly? I recommend baking the turbot for 30 minutes at 180ºC while you prepare the Bilbao-style sauce that will add the finishing touch to this delicious fish. Slice 6 garlic cloves (without the germ) and sauté them in a pan with extra virgin olive oil and a dried chili pepper until they begin to brown (no more, because roasted garlic becomes bitter), then remove from the heat. Check that the fish is cooked to perfection and pour the Bilbao sauce with the garlic over it, making sure that the oil covers the entire surface of the turbot.
Add a generous splash of sherry vinegar to the same pan where you browned the garlic and heat until it reaches boiling point. When it starts to bubble, pour the vinegar over the fish. Keep the pan on the heat and, using oven gloves to avoid burning yourself, pour all the juice from the tray into the pan, including the garlic sofrito, the reduced vinegar you have just poured in, and, of course, the supreme nectar released by the turbot during baking, including its gelatins.
We are going to combine the Bilbao sauce we have just made with all the juices released by the robaballo as it roasted in the oven, the garlic oil, and the vinegar, and we are going to turn it into a wonderful pilpil with a flick of the wrist. The pan should be off the heat, and a good trick is to use a strainer to aerate the sauce so that it emulsifies quickly and with little effort.
Drizzle the turbot with the Bilbao-style pilpil sauce. Remove and serve the baked turbot fillets, accompanying each portion with its corresponding baked potatoes and pilpil sauce. This is one of the simplest ways to prepare turbot at home and enjoy all its wonderful flavor. I also recommend sucking on the head, as it is full of flavor. Open a bottle of chilled white wine, in my case a txakoli, and enjoy.
- The baking time is 30 minutes at 180º: for pieces between 1.5 and 3 kilos, if they are smaller, 20 minutes may be enough, but always keep an eye on the fish because every oven is different and we don’t want to mess things up.
- The pilpil sauce adds a spectacular touch to the baked turbot, because it is full of flavor and recovers the gelatins and juices that are released during baking.
Papa Roach – Getting away with murder
Papa Roach is a nu metal band from California led by frontman Jacoby Shaddix, which reached the height of its popularity in 2000 with Infest, one of the best albums in its discography.
