Slice the onions finely. Peel and slice the garlic. Cut the jalape¤os into strips. Set them all aside.

Clean the fish, leaving the head and tail on. Prick the fish on both sides with a coarse-tined fork, rub in the salt and lime juice, and set aside in the dish to season for about two hours.

Skin, seed, and chop the tomatoes roughly. Set them aside.

Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic, without browning, until they are soft. Add the tomatoes, with the bay leaf, oregano, olives, capers, jalape¤os, and salt to the pan and cook the sauce over a brisk flame until it is well seasoned and some of the juice has evaporated-about ten minutes. Pour the sauce over the fish.

Sprinkle the olive oil over the sauce and bake the fish for about twenty minutes, uncovered, on one side. Turn the fish over and continue baking it until it is just tender-about 30 minutes. Baste the fish frequently with the sauce during the cooking time.

The Cuisines of Mexico Diana Kennedy