Fish with Sesame Paste Sauce ("Samak Bil Tahina")

One of the best arabic dishes! Tahina sauce goes perfectly well with fish.

Ingredients:

500 g. fillet of white fish (hammour)

Salt, pepper, olive oil

1/2 tahina (sesame seed paste)

1 cup water

juice from one lemon

1/2 onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic

Pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, green onions

Method:

1. Prepare fish: wash, discard any left over bones, pat dry, season from both sides and drizzle with olive oil.

2. Bake in preheated to 180 C oven for 10-15 minutes. Time depends on if you cook one big peace or two smaller ones. Do not over bake.

3. Prepare sauce: mix tahina, lemon juice and water and bring to a light boil, just to dissolve the paste. In another skillet fry some onions with garlic in 1 Tbsp. of olive oil, add to tahina mixture and mix well.

4. Remove fish from the oven and spread tahina sauce over it. Place back to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

5. Garnish with fried pine nuts and green onions on top.

Sahten! :-)

PS: for side dish i made some basmati rice with turmeric and raisins:

1. Wash 2 cups of basmati rice until water will become clear. Let it drain in a sieve for 30 minutes.

2. Heat some olive oil in heavy pan and fry rice for 2 minutes until coated well in oil and extra liquid evaporated.

3. Add 3 cups of boiling salted water and close the lead, leave on law heat for 10 minutes.

4. Open the lead and quickly drizzle 1 tsp. of turmeric over rice, close the lead again and cook for another 5 minutes or until rice cooked through and fluffy.

5. In small skillet heat 1 Tbs. of olive oil, add washed and dried raisins and fry for a minute.

6. Add to rice and mix all together before serving. Or just drizzle over rice on serving plate.