Baked flathead with iceberg lettuce salad

Serving size: 4

Gluten-free, egg-free, nut-free, lactose free

Ingredients:

4 flathead fillets
2 small lemons, thinly sliced
Small iceberg lettuce
1 fennel bulb (optional)
1 avocado
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lemon wedges, to serve

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place the fish fillets on the tray, place 2-3 slices of lemon on each piece of fish and season with pepper. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked through.

While the fish is cooking, prepare the salad by cutting the core from the lettuce. Wash leaves, roll up, finely slice and place in a salad bowl. Slice top feathery leaves and bottom from the fennel bulb. Remove the outer layer and then finely slice and add to salad. Peel avocado and slice into chunks, add to salad. To make dressing, whisk oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in small bowl. Toss dressing through salad just before serving.

Place a pile of salad on each plate, top with fish and lemon wedges.

Notes:

This is a very quick meal to prepare, healthy and oh so tasty with the crunchy salad. Leave out the fennel/avocado if you don’t think your kids will eat it. I prepare ¼ of an avocado for me (kids don’t like, gives husband indigestion) and add to my salad when serving.
Freshly caught Flathead on the bbq was a regular feature of my teenage summer holidays. I am still constantly amazed at the price charged for Flathead fillets now, but they are tricky to prepare, so I am happy to pay for skinned, filleted and bone-free fillets.
We are sans-bbq at the moment (the cover blew away, got rained on for a couple of winters: a gas-powered hazard in the back yard happily donated to the local ‘waste transfer station’), so I oven bake fish. But wrapped in aluminium foil and cooked on the barby is perfect.