Mullet stuffed with cottage cheese and croutons

1. Stage

Wash the fish thoroughly, clean it, cut off the fins, remove the gills. Cut along the belly, gut, cut inside, releasing the backbone. Use scissors to bite a backbone near the tail and near the head, take out a part of the backbone. If it came out with meat, you can cut it off and put it back, just putting it back in place. Our goal is to remove the bones and stuff as much as possible without damaging the skin, so we can eventually sew the fish up. Iron the inside of the fish, so you can feel the bones and remove them. Salt and pepper the fish well from the inside.

2. Stage

We make the stuffing. In a bowl put the soft cottage cheese, salt it, pepper it and grate the zest of two lemons.

3. Stage

Add the croutons and mix well. I have croutons for a provincial herb salad and they are small and neat. But I think the seafood-flavored croutons would be in place here, too. The topping is relatively thick, and take into account that the breadcrumbs will swell and absorb moisture not only from the topping, but also from the fish

4. Stage

Put the stuffing in the belly of the fish.

5. Stage

Tie the fish with cooking thread. I did it for the first time, it did not turn out very masterly)))). Try to keep the string roughly divided into portions, it will be easier to cut the fish later. When the fish is ready, put it on a baking tray, grease it with vegetable oil and put sprigs of thyme on top.

6. Stage

Put it in the oven heated to 200 degrees for an hour.

7. Stage

If you touch the cooked fish with your finger, you can feel the crust crunching under it, which comes away from the meat when the fish is ready. From the fish, cut off all the stringlets and remove the thyme. Half slices of lemon can be inserted into the resulting grooves. Transfer, helping yourself with spatulas, to a dish and garnish with fresh vegetables and lemon.