Masgouf

Masgouf is an Iraqi grilled fish dish prepared with carp opened out flat. Hilda Sterner recalls her parents making it in Iraq: her mother butterflied the carp and prepared its sauce, while her father tended an outdoor fire and suspended the fish over it. Her family ate the fish together with vermicelli rice.^[1]

Sterner’s current home recipe also allows mild white fish such as tilapia, catfish or lingcod. Salt and curry powder season the fish, which is covered with a sauce of onion, garlic, tomato, parsley, tomato paste, vinegar and lemon juice, with cayenne optional. Further tomato and onion slices are placed on top. She cooks it in a barbecue grill basket or uses an oven, finishing the oven version under the grill.^[1]