Pollock Plaki

I've started looking in a few new directions for inspiration. Admittedly, I know very little  about authentic Greek cooking but I'm glad I finally cracked open the book that's been sitting on my shelf, staring at me, for the last 10 years!  I'm learning plenty as I'm going though The Complete Book of Greek Cooking: The recipe club of saint paul's greek orthodox cathedral , but I think the biggest take away has been the joy of cooking for a crowd.  Filling a grocery cart with a TON of produce and using entire "family sized" packages of meat and fish has been fun and the leftovers have been amazing.

As with everything, I've modified certain parts of each original recipe to suit everyone's dietary needs and I'm beginning to see that it's  not only very easy to do this with Greek dishes, it's almost assumed that you're going to switch up ingredients to use what's on hand.  My kind of cooking! So, without further ado, here's my take on Greek Fish Plaki.

"Plaki" is a method of cooking that includes the use of onions, tomatoes, parsley, and olive oil and it usually uses fish or seafood as a protein. It is noted, however, that Plaki can also be made of beans or vegetables.

Pollock Plaki

serves 6 (large servings)

2 large onions, sliced thin

1/2 cup olive oil

2 cups coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley

2 stalks celery coarsely chopped

3 scallions, coarsely chopped

3 fresh tomatoes, sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

3 bay leaves

2 lbs Pollock Fillets 

2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

2 whole lemons, sliced into thin rings

1/2 cup white wine

the juice of 2 fresh lemons

1/2 cup panko crumbs 

Preheat oven to 350f.  

Saute onions in olive oil until soft.  Add celery, scallions, parsley, tomatoes, garlic, and bay leaves. Simmer until the liquid is visibly reduced to about 1/2.   Place fish in a greased baking pan and sprinkle with oregano, salt, and pepper. Cover fish with cooked vegetables and decorate with lemon slices.  Add wine and lemon juice and top with breadcrumbs.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until fish flakes easily.  

Serve and enjoy!!