Kingklip with lemon butter sauce from South Africa

Kingklip is a very popular eating fish in South Africa.  It is a species of Cusk Eel and is known by different names around the world.  In Japan it's called Kingu and in New Zealand Ling.  In South America it is known as Congrio.  Kingklip aren't specifically caught, they are a product of by-fishing.  In other words you are trying to catch one kind of fish and accidentally catch a Kingklip when it appears in the trawl net with the more common Hake.  Therefore they are not the cheapest fish and not always available in fisheries.  Kingklip are low in fat and have a delicate flavour.  For this recipe if you can't get your hands on Kingklip you can use any other firm white flesh fish.  Like Hake, Cod or Monkfish for instance.

Kingklip or other white fish fillets
lemon pepper for sprinkling
1 teaspoon butter for each fillet
olive oil for sprinkling
Sauce
1/2 cup water/fish stock
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 cup cream
1 onion finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 bayleaf
250g butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Prepare a baking tray for your fish by lining it in tin foil.  Sprinkle the tin foil with olive oil and lay your fish fillets on the foil.  Sprinkle lemon pepper on the fish fillets and place the teaspoon of butter on top of the fillet.  Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until it is just done and turns from translucent to opaque in the thicker parts.  Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.
While the fish is in the oven you can prepare the sauce.  Put the water, sherry, cream, onion, garlic and bay leaves in a pot and bring to the boil.  Let it boil while you make the next part of the sauce.  In another pot or pan, melt one tablespoon of the butter.  Add the flour and stir until it is incorporated with the butter.  Slowly add the contents of the other pot to your flour/butter mixture, stirring all the while.  Add in the rest of the butter a tablespoon at a time, never stopping the stirring.  Turn the heat down and let it simmer while you stir.  Stir in the salt, lemon pepper and lemon juice.  Take the sauce off the heat and add the chopped parsley just before you are ready to serve.  Spoon the sauce over the fish fillets and serve with steamed vegetables and rice or boiled potatoes.
Cindy Vine is a South African currently living and working in Kyiv in Ukraine. She is the author of Hush Baby, Defective, C U@ 8, Not Telling and The Case of Billy B. All her books are available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. http://cindyvine.com