Marinated silver trevally with lemon verjuice

This dish puts into practice the thinking that verjuice can be used as an acidic ingredient to firm up the texture and help enhance the wonderful natural oils of silver trevally. To make the lemon verjuice, some simple planning is needed.

Serves 4

4 fillets boneless silver trevally or mullet, skin on

sea salt

Lemon verjuice

250g whole Meyer lemon or bergamot, or yuzu when in season

2 litres (8 cups) good-quality verjuice

2 tablespoons caster sugar

pinch of salt

Verjuice dressing

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon caster sugar

2 large banana shallots, finely sliced into rings

140ml extra-virgin olive oil

80ml (1/3 cup) lemon verjuice (see above)

For the lemon verjuice, place the fruit together with the remaining ingredients in a sterilised mason jar. Seal and chill for at least seven days until the flavours have developed. Strain into a clean jar and chill until needed.

For the dressing, toast the coriander seeds in a small frying pan over a medium heat until fragrant and lightly toasted. Cool, then crack the seeds in a mortar and pestle. Combine the cracked coriander seeds, salt, sugar and shallot and set aside for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight, then stir in the oil and verjuice. Set aside.

To prepare the fish, ensure there are no scales or bones on the flesh. Turn the fish on to the flesh side so the skin side is facing upwards. Using your fingers, grab on to the corner of the skin closest to where the head would have been and pull the skin gently off the flesh leaving behind the 'silver skin'. Cut the fillets into thickish slices and arrange on a small plate. Season well with sea salt.

Lightly dress the fish with the dressing, making sure some of the coriander seeds and shallot are distributed over each plate. Serve at room temperature. For a slightly more substantial plate, the addition of crisp peppery leaves, such as witlof, rocket or radish would go perfectly.

This is an edited extract from The Whole Fish Cookbook by Josh Niland published by Hardie Grant Books $55.

Photograph: Rob Palmer