EAT FRESH WITH THESE SIMPLE, SEASONAL AND DELICIOUS FISH RECIPES
One of my favourite fish cookbooks flies a bit under the radar. It was published in 2004. It’s simply called Fresh and was written by self-taught chef, fishmonger and restaurateur Mitch Tonks. I have other excellent fish cookbooks (hello, Rick Stein) and some that are complete A-Zs of fish: how to fillet and skin them, how to make the classic accompaniments and the best-known dishes (hollandaise sauce and lobster thermidor, for example). These A-Zs are not as old-fashioned as they might sound. As we’ve embraced Asian and Middle Eastern ingredients, we’re now more likely to make Vietnamese scallop salad than lobster bisque, so old classics are joined by the less familiar.
Fresh has a prime position on my kitchen shelves because it isn’t a complete reference book. Sometimes too much information creates barriers – alerting you to what you don’t know. What’s in season? Which fish aren’t overfished? Is it OK to eat cod these days? (You have a vague memory that it’s been given the all-clear.)
It’s easy to check on the web, just do a quick google and you’re sorted, but one of the best things about fish is that it’s quick to cook. Tonks’s book features dishes in which you cook fish with minimal ingredients or add a sauce or butter that makes it special. There’s a recipe for baked sea bass with roasted garlic, rosemary and chilli that has been my posh fish dish (with small adjustments) for friends for more than 20 years. There are cheaper fish too, and equally simple recipes for them: spaghetti with clams, olive oil and parsley, or haddock with creamed leeks.
We generally have a limited knowledge of fish, and a limited repertoire of dishes. For years my family would ask for salmon fillets. It was easy – the fillets were always the same size, and I could have cooked them in my sleep – but eventually I just couldn’t do it anymore. I realised I didn’t like the flavour, I was just used to it.
I was using farmed stuff, which I gradually came to hate. I started to buy wild Alaskan instead. I grew up eating wild Irish salmon on special occasions and it’s nowhere near as good as that, but things change. I also started to buy ChalkStream farmed trout (you would never believe it was farmed).
Do you know what’s in season right now? There are mussels, hake, gurnard, red mullet (which most people associate with summer because of its shimmering pink skin) and yes, you can eat cod. There are varieties of fish that are around most of the time, but it’s worth checking what is currently in season or you miss out.
There are fish dishes I cook again and again without consulting a recipe: cod with lentils and salsa verde (a classic of the 1980s), smoked haddock rarebit, sea bream stuffed with garlic, walnuts and pomegranate, plaice with bacon lardons and pea purée, and lots of pilafs and pasta dishes made with prawns or squid. But I miss out on some great fish because they’re not at the front of my mind.
I’m a great “stick it on the fridge door” person. I lose important stuff – NHS appointment letters, the dates of school concerts – so notes go on the fridge door. Some of you will be better organised and have better memories, but this works for me. Recently I added a new page. I wrote up which fish were available in every single month of the year. I also check which fish are in danger every six months or so.
Why does all this matter? I can cook fish that’s abundant, not overfished; fish, most agree, is healthy; I don’t miss out on varieties I end up loving. I’m amazed by how quickly some fish dishes come together, and I’m always in the market for that.
2025-03-15T14:05:06Z