Catch it and cook it – black bream is the next article where I share my experience of catching and then using a favourite recipe, cooking it.
Black Bream are a fast biting, hard fighting fish which can be caught inshore early in the summer around the UK South coast when they come into spawn over the rocky marks.
Boat Fishing
My son and I had a couple of fantastic trips on Seabreeze3 out of Brighton in 2019, catching some fine fish. We practice catch and release, returning the majority, including all females, keeping a couple of male fish for the table.
Simple two boom rigs and small strips of squid on small hooks fished right on the bottom work for bream.
It’s easy to identify black bream males by the bright blue flashes above the eyes.
Our seasons best was the fine example in the above picture at 1.5kg. The average is around 450g.
The fish was cooked whole and made a superb meal for 5!
Whole roast bream with potatoes & olives
Ingredients
- 400 g potato new or small
- 100 g Black olives
- 1 clove Garlic chopped
- 1 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves roughly chopped, stalks reserved
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- ½ zest lemon
- 1 Sea bream about 450g/1lb, gutted, head on
- 1 Small glass white wine
- 100 g Cherry tomatoes optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 10 mins, cut into thick slices, then cool.
- In a bowl, toss the potatoes with the olives, garlic, half the chopped parsley, half the olive oil, the lemon zest and salt and pepper. Tip this mix over the bottom of a medium gratin dish.
- Season the fish and place the parsley stalks in the cavity. Lay the fish on top of the potatoes and drizzle with the rest of the olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes until the potatoes start to crisp up around the edges.
- Pour the wine over, then return to the oven for 10 minutes more until the potatoes have browned and the fish is cooked.
- Remove the dish from the oven, scatter over the rest of the parsley and bring the dish to the table. When you serve up, don’t forget the lovely white wine juices in the bottom of the dish.
- Delicious with a simple bowl of spinach.
You may also like one of my other recipes …
Grandads Cookbook may reference or include sections of text and images reproduced courtesy of:
- Diary of an Average Angler
- Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2008
Size and Catch Limits
Please observe minimum size limits when fishing.
Use a measure like this one from Tronixpro.