Miles Collins

Cooking fillets of flat fish

Is the turbot the grandest fish of them all? I’m not sure what the dover sole would make of that but it’s certainly right up there. If price was the single determining factor then the answer would, at the time of writing be a resounding ‘Yes’!
It is a wonderful fish which is hard to find anywhere othr than on restaurant menus with a customer base willing to pay for it. Fortunately I have so I feel lucky to have the opportunity to cook it once in a while.

Turbot bones make brilliant fish stock which is why I always buy the whole fish, if you have such a thing as a fishmonger then ask him/her to fillet it and cut the bones into stockpot sized pieces and make a simple stock.
Turbot is a meaty fish, you can fry,poach or bake it but whatever you do don’t overcook it. Make sure you cook it at the last moment when the rest of the meal is ready to go. Personally I’d cook it in a hot oven with olive oil and butter smeared over for about five or six minutes depending on the thickness of the fillets.

The flesh of turbot is a pleasing white in its raw state and becomes more so as it cooks, gently press the flesh as you would a steak and you will see the colour change and the texture become firmer to the touch. There’s a lot to be said for keeping it simple with turbot; hollandaise sauce and some new potatoes is as good as anything to be honest but me being me I had to give this one a twist:

Turbot is meaty and mushroms are a great foil so I combined a chicken mousse with sauteed mushrooms, shallots and madeira which I made a fat ravioli out of. A light brown chicken stock was reduced and thickened with a bit of herb flavoured butter and the fish was grilled over a wedge of braised celeriac which is brilliant with fish. A few brown shrimps flavoured the sauce along with some baby leeks and this is how it came out….

Turbot with Cep Ravioli, Poached Celeriac and Morecambe Bay Shrimps