Broiled Trevally

Ingredients

• giant trevally
• eggplants
• squash
• zucchini
• carrots
• onion
• garlic
• ginger
• tomatoes
• bay leaf
• olive oil
• thyme
• basil
• butter
• salt
• pepper

Method

Cut the eggplant, courgette, squash, and carrot into chunks roughly 2–3 cm across; dice the onion into similar pieces; halve the tomatoes lengthwise. Distribute these across the base of a heavy-bottomed pan or shallow baking vessel — they form the bed that steams the fish and flavours the oil, so don't crowd them. Crush garlic and ginger with a mortar-and-pestle until broken but still coarse; distribute half among the vegetables and reserve the rest for the fish.

Pat the trevally dry with kitchen paper and lay it directly on the vegetables, skin-side up. Season both sides aggressively with salt and pepper. Scatter the reserved garlic and ginger over the fish, then distribute thyme sprigs, basil leaves, and a bay leaf across the flesh. Pour 60 ml of olive oil over everything — this is critical: the oil carries heat through pan-cooking and emulsifies with the fish's collagen to build a silky sauce. Cover the pan tightly with foil.

Set the heat to medium (around 160–180°C if using an oven, or medium on the stovetop) and cook for 12–15 minutes. The vegetables release their moisture and create aromatic-vegetables steam; this cooks the fish through via gentle, moist heat rather than direct broiling. Resist opening the lid. After 12 minutes, lift the foil and check: the fish's flesh should flake easily when pressed at the thickest point near the backbone, and the squash should yield completely to a fork. If either is still firm, recover and cook another 2–3 minutes.

Carefully flip the fish onto a plate, then return it to the pan skin-side down for another 2–3 minutes to render any remaining skin fat and build colour. This final stint ensures the skin crisps rather than steams through. Check the vegetables again — the squash is your doneness indicator; when it's fully tender, everything is done.

Transfer the fish and vegetables to a serving plate, tilting the pan to pour the collected oil and aromatics over the top. Rest for 3 minutes before serving so the carry-over heat finishes the cooking gently. The acid from the tomatoes and the slow extraction of vegetable sugars create a natural pan sauce that needs no thickening.