Tal-Lampuki hawn!
For those who do not understand Maltese, the title means the fish vendor selling ‘lampuki’ is here. ‘Lampuki’ is known as dorado or mahi-mahi and is very popular in the Maltese Islands, especially at this time of year. There are many creative ways to cook this particularly simple and tasty fish. Here’s one of my favourites:
Lampuki parmigiana
[caption id=”attachment_551" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Lampuki parmigiana”]
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Ingredients for 4 persons:
- 4 small lampuki, cleaned and filleted
- 1 large aubergine
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 2 tins peeled tomatoes
- 50g grated parmesan
- 250g mozzarella di bufala, chopped (trick: leave mozzarella to drain in a colander so that moisture is removed and the parmigiana will not be too liquid)
- a bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt & freshly ground black pepper
Start by preparing the tomato sauce. Pour a glug of extra virgin olive oil, add the chopped onion and fry for a few minutes; then throw in the tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar and leave to simmer for around 20 minutes. Make sure the tomatoes liquid is well absorbed. In the meantime, thinly slice the aubergine and start grilling each slice. When these are ready keep aside until required. Hence, take the cleaned lampuki, fillet them, making sure to remove all bones. You can always ask your fishmonger to do this job for you! Then, rub each fillet with some olive oil, season with salt & pepper from both sides and grill them very quickly on a hot grill for around 1 minute from each side. Handle the fillets delicately since they might easily crumble down. Now, you can start forming the parmigiana. Take an ovenproof rectangular dish, heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius and start preparing the layers. First lay some tomato sauce at the bottom of your dish, lay 4 of the lampuki fillets on top, scatter with chopped parsley and grated parmesan. Then, place a layer of grilled aubergines and the mozzarella cubes. Repeat the same layer once again and finish off with tomato sauce, parmesan cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Cook for around 20 minutes and serve warm with crusty bread. As in the traditional parmigiana usually this dish is more tasty if you indulge in it the next day!
