Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food (19 page)

Remove the tray from the oven and leave the onions to cool a little. Scoop out the roasted onion flesh and chop it to form a rough onion paste. Place this into a colander or fine
sieve and leave to drain for 3–4 hours.

Place the soft brown sugar in a saucepan over a high heat and stir until it starts to melt. Add the balsamic vinegar, bring to the boil and boil for 1–2 minutes, without
stirring, until a caramel forms. Add the drained onion paste and heat through. Stir in the onion seeds and the chives. Season. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to one side until needed.

Meanwhile, place the white onion rings in a bowl and pour over the milk and leave to one side.

Preheat the oven to 190°/Gas Mark 5. Mix the sea salt flakes, demerara sugar and remaining thyme leaves together, then sprinkle a thin layer of this mix on the base of a
roasting tray. Place the carrots on top then cover with the rest of the salt mix. Place the tray in the oven and roast the carrots for 45 minutes, or until they are tender. Remove the tray from the
oven and leave the carrots to cool a little.

When the carrots are cool enough to handle, scrape the salt mix off them. With a sharp knife scrape the skin from the carrots and keep them hot in the turned-off oven.

Remove the onion rings from the milk, pat dry and lightly dust them in the flour, shaking off any excess. Heat enough oil for deep-frying in a deep-fat fryer or heavy-based
saucepan until it reaches 180°C. Add the onion rings and fry for about 2 minutes until crispy and golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and season. Leave to one side and keep hot in the
turned-off oven (but do not cover).

Place the wine, beef stock and Marmite together in a frying pan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Continue boiling until the liquid has reduced by one-third. Turn the heat
down to very low and add the plaice fillets, then turn the heat off and leave them to poach in the residual heat for 4–5 minutes until they are firm to the touch.

Turn the fish over in the wine to finish cooking for 30 seconds. Remove the fillets from the wine and keep warm. Bring the wine back to the boil and boil until reduced by half.
Pass this through a fine sieve into a clean pan and put back onto the heat. Gently stir in the butter.

Serve the poached plaice fillets with the slow-roasted onions and salt-baked carrots. Pour over a little sauce and then add the crispy onion rings. Serve immediately.

Plaice poached in red wine, slow-roasted onions and salt-baked carrots

This is a real taste of the seaside. While it’s cooking the smells of the fish and sea vegetables fill the room with the nostalgia of being in a coastal town. Cooking the
bass skin side down gives it a nice crispy texture, a good contrast to the soft sea vegetables.

Serves 2

First, cook the mussels. Wash the mussels in running cold water. Discard any mussels that float, any with cracked shells and any open ones that do not snap shut when tapped. Heat
a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the mussels and a splash or water, cover the pan and cook for 5–6 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until the shells have opened. Drain the mussels
and discard any that have not opened. When the mussels are cool enough to handle, remove them from the shells and set aside.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan over a low heat. Season the fish and dust the skin sides with flour, shaking off the excess. Then place the fillets into the pan, skin
side down, and fry for about 8 minutes until the skin becomes crispy.

Meanwhile, heat another frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and fry, stirring occasionally, for 4–5 minutes until it becomes crisp and renders out its fat and
flavour.

Add 20g of the butter to the bacon and heat until it melts and becomes a lovely hazelnut-brown colour. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the sea vegetables with a small
splash of water. Just let them gently wilt. Add the mussels to warm through.

Flip the fillets over when the skins are crispy, then throw in the remaining 20g butter. Squeeze over the juice of the lemon and baste the sea bass with the buttery pan
juices.

Remove the sea vegetables and bacon from the pan and pat with kitchen paper. Divide them between 2 plates, place the fish on top and spoon a little of the cooking butter over the
top. Serve immediately.

Skate is such a lush fish, but you don’t see it often as it has a very short shelf life. When it is at its freshest it is simply stunning, meaty, moist and delicious, but
after a couple of days it develops a very powerful smell of ammonia and must be thrown away. If you are on the coast and ever see this on the fishmonger’s slab, buy it! The dandelion salad is
really bitter and works very well with fish. This is a great lunch dish.

Serves 2

Heat enough rapeseed oil for deep-frying the capers in a heavy-based saucepan until it reaches 180°C. Add the capers and deep-fry for 2–3 minutes until crispy. Remove
them with a slotted spoon, then drain well on kitchen paper and season. Leave to one side until needed.

Thinly peel the zest of the lemon and leave the flesh to one side. Over a medium heat pour the olive oil into a deep frying pan large enough for the whole skate wing. Add the
lemon zest and heat until the oil shimmers.

Add the skate wing, thick side down, and gently poach in the oil for 5 minutes. Use a fish slice or two palette knives to gently turn the fish over and poach the other side for a
further 4–5 minutes until the flesh flakes easily. Skate is a very meaty and moist fish and cooking it on the bone like this means it will remain juicy.

Transfer the fish to a plate, cover with foil to keep it hot and leave to one side. Don’t worry if it breaks up a bit because you are going to flake it for serving. Turn
the heat off and leave the oil to cool.

Meanwhile, mix the dandelion leaves and parsley leaves together in a non-metallic bowl. Segment the lemon and squeeze the juice from the membrane on to the salad. Place the lemon
segments on a baking tray and use a blowtorch to char them. Add them to the salad, then add a couple of tablespoons of the skate cooking oil and toss together. Season.

Flake big chunks of the skate wing from the bone and divide between 2 plates. They will come away from the bones very easily. Add a few salted anchovy fillets on top and scatter
with the deep-fried capers. Stick a handful of the dandelion salad on top and garnish the plate with a little drizzle of the skate-cooking oil. Serve immediately.

There is no doubt about it – gilthead bream is a fantastic fish. It is normally farmed in the Mediterranean sea, making it sustainable, and it travels very well. The skin
crisps beautifully when it’s cooked, and in this recipe its super taste is well balanced with the powerful flavours of the soy sauce and honey.

Serves 2

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the garlic, shallots and ginger and fry, stirring, for 3–4 minutes until lightly browned. Add
the oyster mushrooms and season with a pinch of salt. Stir-fry for 1–2 minutes until they just start to soften. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Heat another 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a nonstick frying pan over a medium heat. Place a sprig of rosemary into the flesh side of each bream fillet, where the pin bones
were. Dust the skin sides in the flour, shaking off any excess, then gently add them to the frying pan. Press the fillets down until they don’t want to curl up anymore. Turn the heat to low
and leave for about 8 minutes, until the skin gets very crispy and the flesh is almost cooked through. Flip the fillets over and add the butter. Leave the butter to melt until it starts foaming and
turns a hazelnut brown, then squeeze the juice of the lemon into the pan and baste the fish with the buttery pan juices.

Meanwhile, return the pan with the mushrooms to a medium heat. Add the spring onions and sesame seeds and toss around in the pan for 1–2 minutes until the spring onions are
just tender. Drizzle the sesame oil over the mushrooms and transfer them to a hot serving bowl. Check the seasoning – you may not need any more salt.

Remove the fish from the pan and remove the rosemary stalks. Add the runny honey to the foaming butter and cook until the honey caramelises and turns an amber colour. Pour in the
dark soy sauce and stir well. Remove from the heat.

Divide the mushrooms between 2 plates and place the fish on top. Spoon the honey and soy sauce over each fillet, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Cooking fish on the bone, as I do in this wonderful winter dish, is the perfect way to keep the fish moist and it stops shrinking, too. Lemon sole is a flat fish, which means
there are no fiddly little pin bones to worry about and the central spine makes it easy to remove the fillets when the fish is cooked. You can’t go wrong with this recipe.

Serves 2

Melt 20g of the butter in a frying pan over a medium-high heat until the butter begins to foam. Add the turnips and fry, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until they
start to colour all over.

Stir in the cider, turn the heat up and bring to the boil. Add the cider vinegar and continue boiling until the turnips are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in
50g of the remaining butter, the mustard seeds and the thyme leaves. Turn the heat off and whisk until the butter emulsifies. Season and leave to one side until needed.

Lightly dust the white-skinned side of the lemon soles with flour, shaking off the excess. Heat the vegetable oil in another frying pan over a medium heat. Add the fish and fry
for about 6 minutes, until it is three-quarters of the way cooked through. Gently turn the soles over, add 25g of the remaining butter and the lemon juice and cook for a further 2 minutes, or until
the fish is cooked through and the flesh flakes easily.

Melt the remaining 15g butter in a saucepan over a high heat. Add the mustard leaves and stir, as if you were cooking spinach, just until they wilt. They will cook very quickly,
so this should be done at the last moment. Season with salt.

Divide the fish between 2 plates and spoon the mustard leaves on top. Spoon the turnips and cider sauce over the top and serve immediately.

Tom’s Tip

If you don’t have a frying pan large enough to fry both lemon soles at once, use 2 pans. It’s better to fry both fish at the same time and serve straight away, than to
fry one after the other, keeping one warm.

Whenever you cook monkfish, you should treat it like a piece of meat and allow it to rest and relax before cutting and serving, as this helps it retain its moisture. Cooking
aubergine like I do in this recipe and then leaving it to drain removes the excess water that it contains. The remaining aubergine flesh works like a sponge, absorbing all the lovely flavours that
you put with it.