Dorada a la Madrileña | Crispy Madrid-Style Sea Bream

Preheat the oven to 190 °C top/bottom heat. Thoroughly wash, peel, and slice the potatoes into approx. 3–4 mm thin slices. Peel the onion and slice into half rings. Toss the potato slices and onions in a bowl with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, spread evenly across the bottom of an oiled baking dish, and pre-bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, thoroughly rinse the oven-ready sea bream under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut three diagonal slashes about 1 cm deep into the skin on the top side of each fish. Season the fish inside and out with salt and pepper. Wash the organic lemon in hot water and cut in half: slice one half into thin half-moons and insert them into the slashes on the fish, set aside the other half for juice.

For the classic Madrid crust, peel and very finely chop the garlic cloves. In a bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the chopped garlic, sweet paprika, 2 tbsp olive oil, and a splash of fresh lemon juice until a loose, aromatic crumb mixture forms.