And as April/May arrived, my friend the fisherman starts to bring us a lot of good lake fish 🙂 today we do a nice Zander fillet from Balaton lake (which is very similar to the northern american Walleye, indeed they are part of the same family, and I suppose they have a similar taste, so this recipe should fit with both species).

Here it is the recipe.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 4 zander/walleye fillets (about 150/200 g each)
• 2 sweet red peppers (Bell peppers)
• 1 yellow onion
• 2/3 medium size tomatoes
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery rib
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 100 ml red wine
• 1 spoon of tomato concentrate
• chili pepper (up to your taste)
• 4/5 sage leaves
• salt
• extra virgin olive oil
• 20g butter (about)

1. First of all clean the fish, remove all the scales with a knife and cut the fillets from it (you can have a look HERE how to do it, or if you cannot just ask the fisherman/fish seller to do it for you), and wash them. The fillets are well done if there are no bones. Then add some salt on them.
2. Now let’s start with the sauce: clean/wash all the vegetables, then remove all the interior parts/seeds from the sweet peppers and chop them into small pieces. Cut the tomatoes and remove all the seeds. Then chop the onion, the celery, the carrot and the garlic into small pieces.
3. Now put some oil in a pan (about 3/4 tablespoons, I guess), and when it’s hot add the onion. Let it brown some minutes, gently.
4. When the onion gets softer, add the celery, the carrot, the chili, the garlic and the tomato, and also about 100ml of hot water in which you have previously melted the tomato concentrate.
5. Now add also the sweet peppers and pour the red wine. Set the heat higher until the wine has reduced, season with some salt and then let it simmer at low heat for about 20/25 minutes.
6. The zander fillets will cook in 6/8 minutes about, so when your sauce is simmering since about 15 minutes, take another pan, melt the butter together with about 2/3 tablespoons of oil, add the sage leaves and when it’s hot enough add the zander fillets, put a drizzle of oil on them, and we will cook them on the skin side. Put a cover on the fish (the cover must be smaller than the pan diameter, in this way it can stay very close to the fish, so it will cook faster and better, keeping more moisture on the fish).
7. The fillets must remain juicy and “wet” inside, otherwise we have overcooked them and it’s not good.
8. Now take an immersion blender and mix all the vegetables into a sauce, and check if it’s salty enough.
9. Put some spoons of the sauce in a dish, and add the zander fillets on it….it’s ready 🙂

PS: It’s possible that some sauce will exceed…not a problem, you can use it for example to do a good sandwich for dinner, together with some good quality ham, sourdough bread and grilled vegetables 😉 or you can use it as a sauce for some easy pasta!

Calories (average man): 20′ running / 25′ cycling / 40′ wood cutting 😀

Calories (average woman): 25′ running / 30′ cycling / 50′ wood cutting 😀