Main ingredients
Fish recipes
Cook it less than you think.
Fish is the fastest cooking in this collection and the least tolerant of inattention: the window between raw and overcooked is often under a minute, and there is no recovery from the far side of it. The single most useful thing to know is that fish is done when the flesh turns from translucent to opaque and the flakes just begin to separate, which happens around 50 to 55°C for most white fish — well below where meat is finished. Freshness matters more here than in any other section and is judged by smell rather than by a date: fresh fish smells of the sea and of nothing else. The recipes say what to look for at the counter as well as what to do at the stove.
10 recipes
Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Spring Onion
A whole fish steamed plain, dressed with soy, and finished by pouring smoking oil over raw ginger and spring onion.
Ackee and Saltfish
Salt cod soaked and flaked into sautéed onion and pepper, then folded through ackee at the very last moment so it does not break up.
Goan Fish Curry
White fish poached in a coconut and tamarind sauce ground from whole spices, sour and hot in equal measure and cooked in under half an hour.
Escovitch Fish
Whole fish fried until the skin shatters, then dressed hot with vinegar, onion, carrot and scotch bonnet so it pickles as it cools.
Brown Stew Fish
Fried whole fish simmered briefly in a dark sweet-savoury gravy built on browning, onion and thyme, and served with the sauce spooned over.
Smoked Haddock Kedgeree
Smoked haddock poached in milk, the rice then cooked in that same liquid, folded together with boiled eggs and curry spices.
Smoked Haddock Chowder
Undyed smoked haddock poached in milk, with that milk becoming the soup and floury potato doing the thickening in place of flour.
Herring Under a Fur Coat
Layers of salted herring, onion, potato, carrot and beetroot under mayonnaise, left overnight so it sets firm enough to cut.
Crisp-Skinned Salmon
Salmon fillets cooked almost entirely on the skin side in one pan, which crisps the skin and leaves the flesh barely set.
Ceviche Clasico
Firm white fish, lime, chilli and onion, and a fifteen-minute window where it is exactly right. Buy the fish the day you make it.