20 Minute Cheat Hake with Baked Sweet Potatoes, Feta And Basil

niallharbison

Ingredients

Fresh hake
Sweet potato
Lemon
Basil
Red peppers
Red onions
Feta cheese

I’m on a mission to dispel the myth that cooking fish is some sort of mystical endeavour reserved only for professional chefs. This little recipe only involves 7 simple ingredients and a few kitchen hacks, so if doesn’t convince you then I give up! This delicious dish tastes even better than it looks in the photos.

Instructions

Step 1

Everything is simple to find, even most supermarkets will have hake these days. It’s a fucking lovely fish so it is and very easy to cook. Get a big chunky piece if at all possible.

Step 2

Slice up the red onions and the peppers.

Step 3

Lash them into a pot with some olive oil, they will take abut 15 minutes to cook so go nice and slowly to sweeten them.

Step 4

Wash the sweet potato and dry it off, because sometimes they can have a bit of dirt on them (how dare farmers put their potatoes in the earth to grow these days!). Prick the potato with a fork all over about 20 times, then throw it in the microwave for about 5 minutes.

Step 5

Slice the lemon in half, crumble up the feta and slice the basil thinly.

Step 6

Next up is the fish, throw on a good bit of cracked pepper, a dusting of salt and some olive oil. Do it in the packet to save on washing up!

Step 7

It does depend on the size of the potato but 5-7 minutes on full heat should do it perfectly. You can check by prodding the fork in to see if it’s completely soft.

Step 8

Slice the bastard in half lengthways – it is going to be piping hot so careful with your little hands.

Step 9

Scoop out all the filling using a spoon and leave the skins intact.

Step 10

By this stage the peppers should be perfectly soft. Throw on a frying pan and crank up the heat to a max under it for about 2 minutes.

Step 11

Now with a little oil in the pan, pop the fish in skin side down, and then the trick – do absolutely nothing. It always amazes me how people want to toss the pan around and play with the fish. It’s honestly best to just leave it there skin side down on a high heat for 2 minutes.

Step 12

After 2 minutes flip the bastard over carefully, and squeeze in the juice of the lemon.

Step 13

Throw the lemons in and turn the heat down a bit – it’s going to take around 90 seconds on this side.

Step 14

Mix up the peppers, onions, basil and sweet potato. Make sure you don’t beat the shit out of but instead leave all the textures whole within the mix.

Step 15

Pop the mix back into the skin and fire it onto a plate.

Step 16

Lash the fish on the plate with a squeeze of the lemon juice from the pan and there you have it!

Unlike most cookbooks or fancy cookery shows there are no secret tricks here. You can actually make this dish look exactly like it does above – sure, half the recipe only requires you to push a button on the microwave! Get the ingredients, find yourself a date or invite a friend over and give this a whirl. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!