Dorada a la sal con JAM tartar/ Salt-baked Sea Bream with JAM tartar

As I was writing this recipe up I thought I would have a quick look on the Internet for variations, etc. ; I wasn't surprised to see people stuffing the fish with herbs, although I personally prefer the flavour of the fish. What did surprise me were the recipes which added water (or more bizarrely: egg whites) to the salt to produce a form of mortar. I don't understand the logic behind this; with salt alone the crust is easier to break and the resulting fish is just as moist.

serves 2

~500g whole Sea Bream, scaled and gutted*

~1.5kg Coarse sea salt

300g fresh spinach

olive oil

1 x Greek yoghurt

a handful of cornichon

a pickled onion

Maldon sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon

* In Spain, the fishmongers will gut the fish through a small opening behind the gills for salt-baking. This helps to prevent the baking salt from entering the fish's cavity.

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC

2. Rinse and pat dry the fish.

3. Place the fish on the baking tray and pour the salt over, along the length of the fish. Continue until the   fish is completely covered; use your hands to compact the salt around the fish.

4. Bake the fish for 15-20 minutes. If you have a cooks' thermometre, you want the fish to be between 52ºC and 57ºC.

for the tartar

5. Finely chop the onion and cornichon, stir into the yoghurt and season.

for the spinach

6. Rinse the spinach, and place in a large pan over a low heat; and wilt.

7. Drain the spinach and place on the serving dish; dress with the olive oil and salt.

8. Break open the salt crust and fillet the fish. Place the fillets on top of the spinach.

9. serve with lemon wedges.