Lemon-crumbed Fish with Tartare Sauce

I like to invite my friends over to my place for a meal. I find that it is a great way to catch up as compared to meeting up in a restaurant. Well, at least we will not have any rude waiter/ waitress interrupting our conversation when one of us is speaking in mid-sentence (that happened to me many times!), or, having to end the gathering early because my friends need to rush home to take care of their kids. When we meet up at my place, I usually invite their other halves as well, so that they can look after the kids when the gals are busy chatting! On top of that, it presents a good opportunity for me to try out new recipes, especially those dishes that require a lot of preparations beforehand and I am quite certain that I will not cook when there are only 1 or 2 persons eating.

Having said that, to arrange for such a gathering can be quite tedious. It involves detailed planning before the actual day, like what should be in the menu, shopping list, where and when to get the ingredients and the sequence of preparing for the dishes. Other than the cooking part, I usually need to have a major spring cleaning as well, as my house can be quite messy sometimes... just think piles of clothes on the floor, books lying around the sofa, bags of all sizes and shapes on the dining table (I change my bag everytime I go out, you see...) etc etc... and I've not even start to talk about the cleaning up after the guests has left!

Therefore, as much as I love to have my friends over, I hardly do so. But since I'm leaving Singapore soon, I wanted to cook for my friends again before I leave. So during the Christmas week, I invited a group of my good friends and their family over for lunch. I prepared mushroom soup, ceasar salad, another four main dishes and two desserts, all served in small portions. It's a pity that I did not manage to take any pictures of the food because I was running behind time and was also quite stressed out when all my friends have arrived but the food was not ready yet.

One of the main dishes that I served was a slice of salmon baked with a coat of chopped parsley, bread crumbs and lemon zest mixture. I tried the recipe out twice prior to the gathering. During the first trial, I used salmon and it's yummy, but I forgot to take a picture of the dish. Two days later, I cooked the same dish again as I have some parsley and potatoes left from the first attempt, but I used a slice of white fish found in my freezer instead. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as tasty as the salmon, and oh, I did remember to take the picture this time round though, which is shown at the beginning of the post. So if you intend to try out this recipe, salmon is the better choice, it tastes great!

Lemon-crumbed Fish with Tartare Sauce
(Recipe adapted from Delicious, Jul 05 issue)

Ingredients:
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
lemon zest from 1 lemon
1 1/2 tbs olive oil (or more)
1/4 cup tartare sauce
4 pieces of salmon (with thickness of about 2cm)
boiled potatoes and vegetables, to serve

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
2) Combine parsley, garlic, breadcrumbs, lemon zest and olive oil in a bowl. Bring the mixture together and add more olive oil, if necessary, until moist enough to pat onto the fish.
3) Spread a layer of tartare sauce on one side of the fish. Pat the breadcrumb mixture on top and press to adhere. Repeat with the other 3 slices of fish.
4) Bake the fish for 10-15 minutes until the crumb is browned and the fish is cooked.
5) Serve with a dallop of tartare sauce, boiled potatoes and vegetable.