Dorada a la Sal Murciana

Dorada a la sal is Murcian coastal cooking at its plainest and best: a whole gilthead bream, its scales left on, buried beneath coarse sea salt and baked in its own trapped moisture. This isn't heavily salted fish. The skin and scales stand between the flesh and the crust, leaving the meat clean, pearly, and full of the sea rather than the salt cellar.

The method that decides it is the seal. Make the salt damp enough to hold when squeezed, then cover the fish in one even, unbroken layer. Gaps let moisture escape and thin patches cook unevenly. At the table, the shell looks grand when it cracks, but the reason for it is entirely practical. It protects a delicate fish better than any fussing with it could.

If dorada isn't sold where you live, use a whole lubina, European sea bass, of the same weight. Its flakes are softer and its flavour a little milder, but the method remains the same. Ask for the fish gutted through the gills if possible, with the scales untouched. My margin beside this recipe says only: scales on, loose salt off before lifting the skin. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.