Personally I love to eat fish but I used to be very reluctant to buy a fresh fish and test recipes. This Summer I promised myself I will try and learn to make at least 5 different types of different fish recipes. After I mastered different salmon recipes back in Barcelona which even my red meat loving boyfriend dared to try and really liked this time I tried to make oven baked hake dish for my boyfriend and friends who stayed with us for a week, they all really enjoyed it while my boyfriend even said this is one of the best fish recipes he tried, ever.
In total, it takes about 30-40 minutes max to make this recipe and fish remains soft and absolutely delicious! Actually, this was the best hake fillet I ever ate as well! 
INGREDIENTS
Main Dish:
1 kg hake fillet
2 lemons (1 sliced to garnish)
Crust:
4 slices of bread toasted (I used a multigrain bread)
50 g / 1.7 oz of grated cheese (I used dry cheddar)
50 ml / 1.7 oz virgin olive oil
1 tbsp of fresh cilantro chopped
30g / 1 oz almond slices
Side Dish:
400 g /14 oz potatoes peeled and chopped into bite size pcs
300 g / 11 oz fresh chard leaves
3 cloves of garlic
olive oil to taste
salt & pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
If you are using frozen hake fillets set them aside to defrost.
Peel and chop potatoes into bite size pieces, place it into a pot full of cold water and cook until soft.
Prepare marinade for hake fish by squeezing juice of 1 lemon (with no pits) into a small bowl, adding some sea sold and freshly ground pepper to taste. Place the fillets in the large plate, cover it with marinade and coat each fillet with it on both sides. Let it marinate for about 15 minutes.
Wash chard leaves very well on both sides, dry it well and and cut it into thin stripes. Check if potatoes are cooked, when ready just add prepared chard leaves a little by little into the hot water along with cooked potatoes. Mix gently and cook on medium heat until chard leaves are cooked (less then 5minutes). Drain excess water and serve potatoes and cooked chard into a large bowl. Season it with olive oil, minced garlic, sea salt and pepper and mix gently.
Prepare a crust mixture by adding together toast cut in small square pieces, chopped cilantro, olive oil, grated cheese and almond slices and mix it in grinder until it has a consistency similar to bread crumbs. Coat ceramic baking dish with olive oil and place thin layer of crust (half of the mixture) on the bottom of the dish. Place hake fillets over the layer of crust, poor a bit of left over marinade over the fish, coat the fish with the remaining mixture to create a top coat and sprinkle some more almond slices over it.
Place thin slices of lemon over the final layer for decoration. Bake on 150C/302 F for about 15 minutes or until the crust is golden.
Alternatively to cooked potatoes and chard you card serve hake fish with rucola salad.
Katarina Štimac, fashion blog – LaKatwalk
