Pan Fried Hake Fillet from The Faulkner #Recipe

Vanessa Owen
22nd May 2020

1. Firstly, place a saucepan of water on a high heat and bring to the boil ready for the samphire.
2. Next, heat a little oil for the salsa in a saucepan add the chorizo and gently fry until starting to crisp slightly.
3. Remove the chorizo and retain til later.
4. Place the chopped shallot, garlic, smoked paprika and chilli into the oil and gently fry for a few minutes.
5. Next add the tomatoes and sugar and cook for around 10 minutes until they start to soften. At this point, add the cooked chorizo back to the pan, add chopped coriander and lime juice and stir through.
6. To cook the hake, put a little olive oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan over a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, season the skin with a little salt and pan roast skin side down until the skin is nice and crisp. This should take around 3-4 minutes.
7. Using a fish slice or spatula, gently turn the fillets over and cook fresh side down for another 2-3 minutes until the flesh turns white and starts to firm.
8. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the fish to stand and rest for a couple of minutes. By this time the fish will be thoroughly cooked all the way through.
9. To cook the samphire, simply blanch in the boiling water for a couple of minutes, remove and toss in a little rapeseed oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.
10. For the spinach, simply melt a knob of butter in a large pan, add the washed spinach, stirring occasionally and season with a pinch of salt. Once the spinach has wilted, remove from the pan and allow any excess liquid to drain away.
11. To assemble, spoon the salsa into a pasta bowl, top with wilted spinach. Place the hake skin side up on top of the spinach and finally garnish with samphire and drizzle with rapeseed oil.
12. Enjoy!

Recipe Info

Serves

4

Ingredients

4 Hake fillets, skin on
Olive oil, to fry
300g baby plum tomatoes
1 banana shallot, finely chopped
4 tsps olive oil, for salsa
1 garlic clove, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp smoked paprika
300g chorizo, diced
1/2 tsp chopped red chilli
1 tbsp fresh chopped coriander
1 tsp sugar
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
200g washed spinach
25g unsalted butter
200g washed samphire
1 tsp rapeseed oil
Lemon juice

Equipment

Saucepan
Heavy bottomed frying pan