Masî birjaw — Oven-baked Fish with Sumac

Name: Masî birjaw — Oven-baked Fish with Sumac
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 18 min
Total time: 38 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 800 g fish fillets with skin (zander or carp; carp scored); 3 clove garlic; 2 piece lemons; 2 tbsp sumac (ground); 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp black pepper (ground); 5 tbsp olive oil; 2 piece onions; 3 piece tomatoes; 0.5 bunch flat-leaf parsley

A Kurdish classic from Sulaimaniyya and Hawraman in north-eastern Iraq: in Sorani, Masî birjaw means roughly roasted fish, and in Sulaimaniyya the fillets come out of the oven with plenty of sumac, garlic and lemon. In Iraq, such oven-baked fish is called Samak bil-furn in Arabic. The fish cooks until juicy on a bed of onions under tomato slices, and the deep red sumac gives it a fresh, fruity, tangy seasoning.

⏱

Cook time

38 min

🍽️

Servings

🧂

Ingredients

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

394 kcal

Calories

39 g

Protein

22 g

Fat

11 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 4 servings

Estimated cost~€2.45 · ~€0.60/serving

Instructions

1
Rinse the fish fillets under cold water and pat dry. Run your fingertips over the flesh against the grain and pull out any bones you can feel with tweezers, then cut each fillet crosswise into two pieces.
2
Peel the garlic and crush it finely, and squeeze one lemon. Stir the lemon juice with the garlic, 1.5 tbsp sumac, salt, pepper and 3 tbsp olive oil, turn the fish pieces in it and leave to marinate, covered, in the fridge.
3
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 °C top and bottom heat. Peel the onions and cut them into thin rings; cut the tomatoes and the second lemon into thin slices.
4
Grease a baking dish of about 30 × 20 cm with 1 tbsp olive oil and lay the onion rings in it as a bed. Place the fish pieces on top, skin side down, and pour the marinade over them.
5
Arrange the tomato and lemon slices overlapping like roof tiles on and between the fish pieces, drizzle with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with the rest of the sumac.
6
Slide the dish onto the middle shelf and cook the fish until it is lightly browned at the edges.
7
Test for doneness at the thickest point: the flesh is no longer translucent and comes away from the skin and bones in flakes, and the core temperature is 62 to 65 °C. Otherwise, cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, but no longer, so that the fish stays juicy.
8
Wash the parsley, shake it dry and chop roughly. Put the fish on plates with the soft onions and the juices from the dish and sprinkle with parsley.
9
Carp has fine intramuscular bones that do not disappear completely even after scoring, and a bone may also have been left in the zander. Watch out for them when eating and give children the fish flaked and with all bones removed.
10
Tip: Serve with Birinc bi şehriye — white rice with toasted vermicelli or Nanê sêlê — wafer-thin flatbread from the domed griddle, plus Zelateya kurdî — tomato, cucumber and onion salad with sumac. Have the fishmonger score carp fillets, that is, cut them crosswise at narrow intervals, so that the small bones soften during cooking. Keep leftovers covered in the fridge and eat them cold with lemon the next day.