Pan fried Gray Mullet with sage and lemon beurre noisette – 07/05/09

Severs 2
Cooking time 8-10 minutes
Preparation time 15 – mostly for cooking the potatoes

1 whole gray mullet (filleted)
300g new potatoes
1 small pack purple sprouting broccoli
½ lrg bag baby spinach
4 sage leaves (ripped)
1 sprig thyme (picked)
1 clove garlic (finely sliced)
3 ish knobs of butter
3 ish glugs of olive oil
½ lemon
10-12 chive shoots

I got my mullet from a little fishmonger that sits in one of the arches between the two piers on Brighton beach he’s a really nice guy really that enjoys a chat about his fish. He’s not open on Mondays and usually closes at about 3pm depending on how busy he is, so get down there early if you want to get the best of the catch. The fish he has changes daily as to what has been caught that morning from the channel!!! Perfect although you can’t really plan ahead, although I think that puts the fun into the kitchen! Anyway so I went down on my break from work to see what he had in and to my luck he had 4 whole gray mullet as well as some sea bass, Mackerel and some squid. I really like gray mullet its so much cheaper than sea bass and I think just as good if not a little meat this whole fresh filleted fish cost me £3.50 not bad for two portions I think. Most of the rest of the ingredients bar the chives I got from Taj which I will tell you more about another time.

Method

1) Put the new potatoes in to a pan with lightly salted cold water until just soft (put a knife into a potatoes and if it falls off the knife this is generally a sign it is ready but give it a little squeeze on the side just to be sure!) when the potatoes are ready put to one side with the lid on to keep warm until your fish is cooked.
2) Take your filleted fish and lightly score diagonally 3-4 times across the fillet approximately 2 fingers apart from each other (if you lightly pinch the fillet holding the top with your finger and the bottom with your thumb it will make scoring much easier but be careful not to go all the way through the flesh.)
3) Take another pan with 1 part butter (a knob) and 2 parts water and some S&P and your ripped sage and bring to a simmer with the lid on ready for your broccoli
4) Take a pan with a lid large enough to fit all your spinach in and add a couple of spoons of water with the thyme, garlic and S&P place the lid on and place on a med/high heat and cook for 5 mins once cooked strain the liquid out
5) Place your fish pan (non stick frying pan) on a high heat ready to cook your fish
6) Add the broccoli to the pan you prepared at no 3 and place the lid back on. Just give your spinach a quick stir.
7) Roughly mash your new potatoes (trying not to mash them too much!)chop your chives and add them to the potatoes squeeze in the 1/2 lemon juice add some olive oil S&P and just check the seasoning.
8) Add you’re a knob of butter and a good drizzle of olive oil to your fish pan once the butter has browned add your seasoned fish fillets skin side down (if they start to bow just lightly press the flesh until it relaxes) leave to cook until you see the whites of the flesh on the side start to colour once this has coloured about 5-8mm (this should only take a couple of mins) carefully turn the fish over and leave for 30 seconds and remove from the heat the leave the fish in the pan for 30 secs then place on the plate. Place the pan back on the heat for 30 secs with a small knob of butter and 2 ripped sage leaves and squeeze in the other half of the lemon
9) Arrange potatoes spinach and broccoli on the plate with the fish on top and the sage butter from the fish pan around.