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One of the best ways to enjoy sea bream is undoubtedly to cook it in the oven. The baked sea bream fillets are in fact a second nutritious dish and excellent in its simplicity. The low-fat fish is perfumed with aromatic garlic and soaked with heavy cream! It is one of the home-made recipes that will make you feel like eating in a high-end restaurant.

If you don’t have the sea bream fillets already cleaned, you can try to prepare the fish for the recipe yourself. Keep reading to find the step by step guidance on how to fillet the fish at home.

How to clean and descale the fish?

I suppose everyone hates this step of preparing the fish, however, it is one of the most important things to do and this is why I decided to share my knowledge with you.

The tools necessary for cleaning and filleting fish are a scaler, however, if you don’t have one, use a well-shaped knife with a flexible blade, and a tweezer.

First eliminate the scales with the scaler, passing it from the tail to the head several times. Better to do this under running water to avoid scattering them everywhere.

Make an incision along the chest and extract the entrails with your hands with a very sharp knife. Then cut all the fins, which are located on the chest, belly, back, and on both sides, as well as in the tail.

Rinse the fish well under running water. Make sure to also clean the interior where the entrails were to remove any trace of blood. Remove the gills that are in the two openings on the sides of the head using the fingers. Now cut off the head.

How to cut fish for fillets?

Cut the fish up to the central bone, making a cut along the whole body from the back. Gently lift the first fillet and work with the knife to detach it from the rest of the fish. Put it aside.

For the second fillet, you must detach the meat from the central bone. You can proceed in two ways. First, you can pass the knife under the fishbone to lift and remove the bone. Second, you can turn the fish with the fishbone down and pass the knife to separates the fillet. Start from the head and go towards the tail.

Optionally, you can remove the skin from both fillets. Lifting one end and gently shift the knife to detach the skin from the pulp. Make sure to find the right angle of the blade as to cut off the skin only, avoiding the meat.

How to identify fresh fish?

It may be sometimes tricky in recognizing fresh whole fish. However, there are some exact indicators that will help you in the matter. Always inspect the clarity of the eyes. The eyes must be vivid and the cornea transparent. The skin of the fish is also a great indicator of freshness, it must be firm and shiny. If it sticks to your fingers, it’s not fresh.

Now let’s proceed to the recipe itself.

Ingredients for creamy Baked sea bream

This is a straightforward recipe to make, and it only involves a few simple ingredients. For this delicious first course you need the following list of things:

Sea bream fillets. You can choose to cook fillets with our without skin, and I prefer the ones with the skin on because the skin adds extra flavor and fat to the dish.
Butter. You need to butter for the recipe to saute the fish for a few minutes before actually transferring it to the oven for final cooking. The butter goes perfectly with the fish, especially with low-fat fish such as the sea bream.
Garlic. This ingredient will complement the dish with additional aroma, especially when sauteed in the butter
Heavy cream. I used 20% fat heavy cream, however, you can actually use any. The rich texture of the cream will only make the fish be even finer and more tender.
Salt and ground pepper as it takes
Granulated garlic

How to cook the creamy baked sea bream?

The cooking process for this recipe is divided in two. Don’t get scared by this because both parts are more than simple and rapid. As a first thing – preheat the oven at 350 degrees.

The first part includes frying the fish, and this is how you do it. Take a frying pan, one that can be transferred to the oven later. Melt some butter on it on medium-low heat. Peel off about 4 garlic cloves, crush it and add them to the butter. Let it saute for about 1-2 minutes. The smell is already mouthwatering. In the meantime, add salt and pepper to the fish fillets. Now add the fillets to the pan with the skin down and increase heat. Lightly press the fillets as they reduce in size; it is a normal phenomenon. Let it brown a bit, for about one mite, then gently turn sides. Let the fillet get a little brown on the other part as well. Then turn off the stove and add about half a cup or little more of heavy cream on top. Sprinkle some granulated garlic and now proceed to the second part.

The second part supposes transferring the pan to the oven for about 15 minutes. That is all. As you can see this is a very rapid and easy to make recipe. It is a perfect recipe for a night with friends or family.

How to serve creamy baked sea bream?

There is no need for special garnishing of the dish because it is perfect as it is. You can serve it alone or you may serve it along with some sauteed fresh spinach with garlic and sprinkle some freshly grated parmesan. It makes a perfect combination of the fillets. Also, you may consider baked potatoes, rice, or a light tomato salad to accompany the creamy fish. Whatever your decision is, enjoy the course! If you like the fish the way I do, try the Baked Cod and the Baked Salmon.