Buttered fish with coriander, nuts and spring onions

The Dutch are quite freaky with food. Fish, meat and poultry should as much as possible be hardly recognizable from their original state -- no heads, tails, bones and fins. To Pinoys like me who grew up savoring fish with skin, head, tails and all, I find it not so nice to eat the almost white mass that is fish fillet after removing all the parts where all the flavors come from. Fish at supermarkets will be in fillet form and that's a given. When I really want to eat fish in Pinoy fashion, I go to the open market but have to ask the fish vendor that cleaning the fish for me is just removing the scales and gills but the head and skin have to remain intact.

Anyway, let me share here with you a fish recipe using the flavorless fillet. This one's a winner as the amazing flavors from coriander, spring onions, butter and nuts sensationally come out and redeem the lost value of any fish fillet.

On this dish, you will need the following:

Fish fillet

Salt and pepper

Coriander leaves

Spring onions

Nuts (hazelnuts or peanuts)

Butter

This dish tastes sensational and all you need is steamed rice and a slice of lemon to squeeze over the fish.

I normally get the frozen fish fillet from the grocery. I let that thaw at room temperature but when I am in a hurry such as in this instance, I just let the microwave speed up the job for me. Next to that, I season the fillet on both sides with salt and pepper.

Then I chop finely a handful of coriander leaves (cilantro). I used to hate this herb because when I first had my encounter with it on a curry dish, I guess I put too much that its dominating flavor was such that the dish tasted like bleach. Now that I know how this herb works for my dishes, I've learned how to tame it and actually make the dishes sensational.

Spring onions or "dahon ng sibuyas" as we call it in the Philippines is also wonderful to use. Just cut it in very thin rings.

Nuts seem to also do wonders on this dish. Toast a handful or two of hazelnuts or peanuts and then pound it.

Let butter softened at room temperature, add all the ingredients (coriander, nuts, spring onions) to it and then coat the fish fillet on both sides.

Place the coated fish in an oven-proof dish and baked at 220 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes or until the fish is cooked and the top is brown. Another option if you have a combi oven/magnetron is to use the grill.