Steamed brill, leeks and sorrel with lime beurre blanc and pomme dauphine

Serves 4 Starters and mains

Advertisement

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/ Gas 4. Prick the potato in a few places with a skewer and place on a tray to bake for around 1 hour, until soft. When the potato is cooked, put 20g of the butter into a bowl. Cut the potato in half, scoop out the hot flesh into the butter and mash roughly. Rub through a sieve (or use a potato ricer) back into the bowl.

Heat the remaining 25g of butter in a small pan and stir in the flour to make a roux. Mix the milk and water into the roux and heat for around 1 minute, stirring well. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg and the potato. Season and put aside while you make the lime beurre blanc.

To make the beurre blanc, you will need a bain-marie to keep it warm afterwards to prevent splitting. A bowl set over a pan of hot water is fine, making sure the base doesn’t touch the water.

In a small pan, reduce the fish stock and lime juice down to around 2tbsp and whisk in a few cubes of butter. Return to a low heat and whisk in the rest of the butter, a little at a time to thicken. Season, pour into a bowl or bain- marie and put over the hot water to keep hot.

To cook the pomme dauphine, using 2 teaspoons, scoop out around 20 quenelles onto a tray dusted lightly with flour.

Heat a pan or wok with the oil until it reaches 180C/350F (you may need to fluctuate the heat). Fry the balls for around 3 minutes, turning with a slotted spoon when they turn golden on one side. Fry until cooked through. Keep warm while the fish is being steamed.

Lightly salt the fillets and fold each one in half. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, turn down the heat and put the fish fillets in a steamer basket and steam for 5 minutes, until just cooked. Transfer the fish to a tray and keep warm in a very low oven. Add the leeks to the steamer and cook for 8 minutes. Add the sorrel to the steamer to wilt for 1 minute. Spoon some beurre blanc onto individual serving plates, add the leeks and sorrel, and top with the fish. Add a few pomme dauphine to the plate. Scatter with the chives and micro leaves and dust some pul biber around the plate.

* To fillet and skin brill

Place the fish on a chopping board, dark skin uppermost, and then, starting at the head end, cut through the skin using a sharp fish-filleting knife, or a super-sharp cook’s knife. Closely cut around the head to remove, taking care not to slice off any of the fillet flesh. Using scissors, snip off the tail and cut the frilly fins off around the fish. (Reserve the skeleton and frilly fins to make a stock.) Make a straight incision down the fish following the natural centre line between the fillets. From that incision, with the knife blade set at a slight angle, slice in to separate the flesh from the bone in clean sweeps. Continue in the same way to remove the other fillet, then turn the fish over and then repeat the same on the other side.

To skin the fillets, lay one at a time skin-side down and take hold of the tail end. Put the knife blade between the skin and the flesh and, keeping hold of the skin, firmly work the knife down the fish to completely remove the skin, peeling back the flesh as you go.