This is a quick and delicious fish dish that easy enough for mid week dinners and fancy enough for weekend entertaining. Make this Mustard Crusted Baked Perch for your next fish Friday!
What is Perch?
Perch are a fresh water fish commonly found in lakes, small ponds and rivers. It has a white flesh and is firm yet a little crumbly. Perch has a mild flavour which means it takes on whatever flavours you add to it. It’s similar to the walleye fish. It’s a versatile fish and great for baking.
What Makes This Dish Great
- Prep ahead of time – You can prep this dish in the morning for serving at dinner. Which makes it great for entertaining.
- Healtly – Fish is naturally lower in calories and high in omegas, which make it a healthier animal protein.
- Delicious – This is a great dinner and goes wonderful with so many different side dishes.
Ingredients
- Fresh – perch fillet, parsley, spring onion, lemon juice and zest
- Dairy – butter
- Dry goods – bread crumbs
- Seasonings and flavours – Dijon mustard, dried tarragon, garlic, salt and pepper
REMEMBER, The full recipe and instructions is always found at the end of the post in the recipe card.
Instructions
- Preheat oven – Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the fish on a piece of parchment paper, pat dry and place in a baking dish. Set aside.
- Make the mustard topping – In a small bowl, combine the mustard, 1/2 of the parsley, 1/2 of the tarragon, the lemon juice, 1/2 of the zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and set aside.
- Make the bread crumb topping – In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, remaining parsley, remaining tarragon, and remaining lemon zest. Stir to combine,
- Top the perch and bake – Spoon the mustard mixture over the fish to coat it completely. Evenly spoon the bread crumbs over the fish and firmly press down. Cover the entire fish. Drizzle over melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, garnish with spring onion and serve straight away.
Recipe Notes About The perch
- If you have never had perch, it really is a great fish. Not overly fishy for all you non fish converts. Admittedly, we didn’t grow up eating perch because I don’t think it was really available in our area. Or maybe we just ate cod because it was plentiful. Not sure. However, I discovered this fish about 15 years ago and thought it a good idea to give it a try. Note, I always buy the fresh fillets not the entire fish. So, it makes for easy cooking.
- It is a white fish and somewhat flaky. Not to the extent of cod but I would say more like hake or something like that. And as I just said, it isn’t overly fishy. It will kind of take on whatever flavours you care to add to it. I like pan frying it with just lemon and garlic. So easy, and very good also.
- It is literally a 30 minute dinner from start to on the table. Well, maybe 35 minutes, depending on what kind you turtle you might be..ha! This particular recipe I have played around with before on cod and had hit and miss success. This time around it was a sure winner and I absolutely loved it.
- Use fresh bread crumbs, not the store bought kind. However, if you are planning to use store bought, I would recommend panko type bread crumb. But making your own in a food processor is so easy and takes only about 20 seconds. As well the recipe calls for Dijon mustard, I do recommend using this because of it’s strong flavour. However, if you don’t like it just use the type you prefer. And that really is it honest to goodness.
Goes great with any kind of a vegetable side dish or even a salad for warmer weather. And if you love this dish, you need to check out my Crusted Perch with Parsley Sauce!
Happy cooking friends and have a great Monday!
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Frequently Asked Questions
You can cook perch with the skin on or off, it’s completely your choice. The skin of perch is pretty delicate and had a great flavour.
The flesh of the fish will turn white and it will flake apart easily.
Mustard Crusted Baked Perch
Ingredients
- 1 Perch fillet approximately 1 lb/500 grams
- 1 Cup bread crumbs (from dry bread)
- 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
- Small bunch fresh chopped parsley divided
- 1 Tablespoon dried tarragon divided
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Zest of 1/2 lemon divided
- 1 Garlic clove crushed
- 3 Tablespoons butter melted
- Salt
- Pepper
- spring onions for garnish minced, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the fish on a piece of parchment paper, pat dry and place in a baking dish. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the mustard, 1/2 of the parsley, 1/2 of the tarragon, the lemon juice, 1/2 of the zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, remaining parsley, remaining tarragon, and remaining lemon zest. Stir to combine,
- Spoon the mustard mixture over the fish to coat it completely. Evenly spoon the bread crumbs over the fish and firmly press down. Cover the entire fish. Drizzle over melted butter. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, garnish with spring onion and serve straight away.
*A note on times provided: appliances vary, any prep and/or cook times provided are estimates only.
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