Coconut Fish and Tomato Bake

This recipe from Yewande Komolafe has almost 5,000 five star ratings from readers of the New York Times. How do you not try this? A coconut milk dressing with powerful spices marinates the fish; and pretty much any type of fish will do. It roasts in a hot oven along with cherry tomatoes, and you’ll need rice or toasted bread to sop up the delicious sauce.

Two suggestions I followed from those thousands of comments. I used a glass baking dish rather than a sheet pan to keep the sauce from spreading and burning under the broiler. And gave the tomatoes a 10 minute head start before adding the fish, to keep the fish from overcooking. (To make this more of a complete meal I added sliced asparagus along with the tomatoes). Yewande has you moving the dish to the broiler for the last 5 minutes, which would nicely brown the tomatoes; but I skipped that step without regret. If you like these flavors you will love this!

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed and finely grated

1 garlic clove, finely grated

1/2 tsp. ground turmeric

1/2 tsp. red-pepper flakes

1 Tbs. honey (maybe a bit less)

Kosher salt

2 limes

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

4 (6-ounce) fish fillets, such as snapper, haddock, striped bass, fluke, sablefish or salmon, skin on or off

2 pints cherry tomatoes (cut in half if you’re worried they might burst)

3 Tbs. olive oil

In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, ginger, garlic, turmeric, red-pepper flakes, honey and 1 tsp. salt.

Zest and juice 1 lime directly into the coconut milk mixture. Stir in 1/4 cup chopped cilantro. Add the fish fillets and turn to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes. Meanwhile adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position. Arrange another rack in the position closest to the broiler heat source. Heat over to 425 degrees.

Place the tomatoes on a large sheet pan. Drizzle with 2 Tbs. olive oil, season with salt and toss to coat. Place the marinated fish between the tomatoes and spoon all the marinade from the bowl over the fish. Drizzle 1 Tbs. oil over the fish. Transfer the pan to the lower-middle rack and roast until the surface of the fish is opaque but the center is not cooked through, 8-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. The fish should not flake easily with a fork. Remove the pan from the oven and heat the broiler to high. Move the pan to the broiler and finish cooking, rotating the pan once, until the fish is tender and the tomatoes are just beginning to brown in spots, 5 to 6 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Slice the remaining lime into wedges.

Divide the tomatoes and fish among dishes and tip the pan juices over the fish. Garnish with the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro and serve with lime wedges for squeezing. serves 4.

I’m using the lovely photo from the NYT.