Miles Collins

A quick and easy recipe for the home cook

As chefs get older their food tends to become less elaborate. It’s not because we are past it, far from it, we’ve just grown up. I have mentioned before about wanting to set the world alight with dishes that promised much but delivered little in my younger days, every young sous/head chef goes through the same process, it’s called evolution I suppose.

I still do the odd technical thing here and there to keep; a. my hand in, b. the young chefs interested and c. the food inspectors happy but that’s about it. I have long since realised that what really matters is the quality of the produce, respect that and you can’t go far wrong.

I mentioned in an earlier post the fabulous arctic char I had bought and how treating it simply would yield the best results, well here’s one I cooked earlier….

The char (you can use salmon or trout) was filleted, pin-boned and cut into an eight ounce portion. I like to pan fry the fish in olive oil and butter first to seal in the flavour and incorporate as much moisture back into the fish before it feels the force of a hot oven. A sprig of thyme is added to the pan before finishing off in the oven for eight to ten minutes. During this time I spoon the butter and oil over the fish and keep checking the cooking degree, once the flesh begins to feel firm to the touch then you are almost there, try not to overcook.

In the meantime I have boiled some potatoes and sliced them into equal pieces. In another pan I have quickly cooked some french beans which are still quite crunchy. I warm the potatoes through in a frying pan with a little butter before adding the cooked and sliced in half beans. The addition of the anchovy fillets should be treated as an almost afterthought such is their delicate disposition.

Whisk up 120ml of olive oil with 40ml of white wine vinegar, add a teaspoon or so of dijon mustard and season well. Finely chop a couple of shallots and a tablespoon of parsley and/or chives. Stir into the liquid, I like to add a little caster sugar to remove some of the acidity but that is a matter of choice.

Gently toss the vegetables with a spoon of the dressing and place in the centre of your plate. Spoon a little more dressing around and top with the cooked fish.