“I love cooking hake, it has an ability to be quite forgiving. I like to cook it with the skin on, so get your fishmonger to scale and pin bone the fish and cut it into portions for you. The sauce, or bisque, can be made way in advance and frozen in tubs The shellfish is optional, but I really like cockles and mussels. Keep the fish just a little undercooked so it retains its wonderful, flaky texture.”

Serves 2

Prep time 45 minutes; cooking time: 1 hour 

INGREDIENTS

2x150g pieces of hake, skin on, pin-boned and scaled. Get your fishmonger to do this. Use cod as an alternative, but avoid salmon.

250g shells like lobster, langoustine or crab

1 carrot

1 stick celery

1/2 onion

A wedge of fennel

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1/2 glass white wine

Tiny pinch of saffron, optional

1 shot brandy

A bunch of herbs like thyme

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon tomato purée

1 litre fish stock, or water

1 medium-sized potato

50ml double cream

Juice of 1/2 lemoN

A knob of butter

Good salt and pepper

A handful of washed cockles and mussels

Heat the oven to 200-230°C / Gas Mark 6-7

Roast the shells for 20 minutes then crush as best you can with the end of a rolling pin.

Reduce the heat of the oven to 180°C / Gas Mark 4.

Peel and roughly chop the vegetables.

METHOD

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pot and add the vegetables (except the potato) and fry until nice and golden, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the crushed shells and mix in the tomato purée. Add the saffron and wine and reduce for a minute or two. Add the brandy and hopefully it will ignite - be careful as it can burn your eyebrows off! It’s not crucial for it to ignite though. Next, add the herbs, potato and the fish stock (or water) and bring to the boil. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, then pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a clean pan. Reduce by half, then add the cream. Be careful, as once the cream is in, it will boil over if it gets too hot. Add the cockles and mussels to the sauce as it gently simmers. Add lemon juice to taste. Season.

Once the cockles and mussels have opened, begin to cook the hake. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick frying pan and get it hot. Pat the fish is dry and season with salt and pepper. Place it in the pan, skin-side down, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, then for a few seconds on every other side, then back to skin-side down. Add the bay leaves to the pan and place in the oven for 3 minutes or so, until the fish is just cooked. Remove from the oven and add a knob of butter and baste the fish in the pan. Turn it skin-side up and baste again whilst seasoning with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Let it rest for a moment then serve in warm bowls with the shellfish sauce, topped with a bay leaf. Give a final season, and serve with some wilted spinach perhaps…