Recipe · Main course · Amazon
Fish in leaves, inspired by patarashca
Fish fillets seasoned with turmeric, garlic and mild chilli, with onion, tomato and coriander, baked in the oven in a banana-leaf parcel.
- Serves 4
- About 1 hour (estimate)
- Easy
A seasoned river fish fillet, wrapped in a large leaf and cooked over embers: patarashca is one of the dishes of the Peruvian Amazon. Its name, according to Wikipedia, comes from the Quechua patarashka, “wrapped”.
A cuisine of leaves and embers
Wikipedia describes a freshwater fish fillet seasoned with turmeric, mild ají or charapita (a small Amazonian chilli) and forest coriander, wrapped in bijao leaves and cooked over embers; at home, banana leaves are used, in the oven or on the grill. In Peru, it is served with cassava, plantain and sometimes white rice. The dish is also found on the Colombian side of the Amazon.
The leaf and the fish
The leaf keeps the juice in and gives the fish a plant aroma. In Switzerland, banana leaves, often frozen, can be found in Asian grocery shops. Amazonian fish are impossible to find: choose a firm white fish of even thickness, so that it cooks evenly.
Our version
The oven gives neither the taste of the embers nor that of bijao, but the parcel keeps the fish’s juices in. The time depends on the thickness of the fillets: rely on the core temperature.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Estimated preparation time
- Advance preparation
- Thawing the banana leaves, if they are frozen (in the fridge, the day before)
- Active time
- 25 minutes
- Cooking
- 15 to 20 minutes in the oven, depending on the thickness
- Resting
- 15 minutes of marinating in the fridge
- Total
- About 1 hour
Techniques: En papillote, Oven.
The fish
The garnish
To serve
Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.
Useful equipment
- An oven tray or dish
- Scissors
- A cooking thermometer
Method
- Check with your fingertips that there are no bones left in the fillets. Mix the garlic, turmeric, cumin, lime, oil and salt, coat the fish with it and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Soften the leaves for a few seconds over a flame or in very hot water, then wipe them.
- For each parcel, cross two leaves. Place in the centre half of the onion and tomato slices meant for one parcel, the fillet, then the rest of the vegetables, the chilli and the coriander.
- Fold the sides over like an envelope, edge over edge, to keep the juice in, and close with string or cocktail sticks. Place the parcels, folded side down, on the tray.
- Bake for 15 minutes for 2 cm fillets, 18 to 20 minutes if they are thicker. Open one parcel: the flesh should be opaque and flake with a fork, at least 70 °C at the core in the centre.
- Serve in the opened leaf, with the cooking juices, cassava or plantain and rice.
Signs of success
- The flesh is white and opaque right to the centre, still juicy, and separates into flakes.
- The vegetables have melted into a yellow juice fragrant with turmeric.
- The banana leaf, lightly toasted, flavours the fish; paper does not give this taste.
Precautions
- Cooking: at least 70 °C at the core, in the centre of the thickest fillet.
- Open the parcels keeping your face away: the steam burns.
- Banana leaves sold for food use, washed.
Allergens identified
Present: fish. Possible: crustaceans (prawn variant).
Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).
Variations and tips
- Over embers, as in the Amazon: the parcels are placed on the grill, away from the flames, and turned halfway through cooking.
- With prawns, instead of fish.
Reasonable substitutions
- Amazonian river fish impossible to find: a firm white fish (cod, hake, perch) is suitable; the taste is different.
- Sacha culantro, the Amazonian herb: coriander comes close without replacing it.
- Baking paper instead of leaves: the cooking works, but without the plant aroma; it is an adaptation.
Storage
- Raw fish: in the fridge, below 5 °C, to be cooked on the day of purchase. Cooked leftovers: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen.
Going further
Sources and dates
2 sources
Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.
Figures and rules cited
- at least 70 °C at the core: Minimum core temperature for meat, poultry, fish and seafood (general Swiss guideline) (Switzerland) . A food safety guideline, not a culinary doneness criterion: some meats are served more cooked.
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene: four basic rules, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - in the fridge, below 5 °C: Storing meat, poultry, fish, seafood and leftovers (Switzerland) . The FSVO also asks you not to refreeze food that has been thawed.
Official source: FSVO, Hygiène et aliments (food hygiene, in French) (new tab) · consulted on 3 October 2026 - in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen: Cooling and keeping cooked leftovers (United Kingdom) . The same source asks you to thaw food in the fridge and to eat thawed food within 24 hours.
Official source: GOV.UK (Food Standards Agency), cooling, freezing and defrosting food safely (18 December 2017) (new tab) , published on 18 December 2017 · consulted on 3 October 2026
Sources consulted
- Wikipedia (Spanish), Patarashca (Quechua etymology, freshwater fish, turmeric, ají charapita, bijao, embers) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
- PROMPERÚ, the cooking of the Amazon (patarashca de pescado) (new tab) (consulted on 3 October 2026)
How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.