Red Mullet in Roast Fennel Gravy

To me, red mullet is very much a luxury ingredient and, with a flavour profile reminiscent of shellfish, one that needs little to reach its full potential. With a fish like this it’s important to really pay attention to the cooking — too much heat and this elegant protein can quickly enter the realm of dry chicken breast. Good-quality mullet can (and almost should) be served half-cooked; in this dish, the warm fennel gravy will gently cook the flesh the rest of the way. As much as I love this vegetarian gravy with the red mullet, it also pairs perfectly with roast chicken, lamb, pork and crispy potatoes.

If you don’t want to try your hand at reverse butterflying the mullet yourself, be sure to ask your fishmonger to do it for you. And take out all the pin bones while they’re at it.

SERVES 4 AS A STARTER OR 2 AS A MAIN

2 × 200 g boneless reverse butterflied red mullet, head and tail on

60 ml (¼ cup) grapeseed oil

sea salt flakes

Roast fennel gravy

4 fennel bulbs

125 g butter

300 ml white wine

125 ml (½ cup) olive oil

pinch of sea salt flakes

190 ml verjuice

60 ml (¼ cup) chardonnay vinegar

For the roast fennel gravy, cut each of the fennel bulbs vertically into three pieces so that the roots hold the slices together. Add the butter, wine and olive oil to a large shallow pan and place over a medium–high heat to melt the butter. Add the salt and then lay the fennel pieces, cut side down, over the base of the pan. Cook, turning once, for about 20 minutes until the fennel is very well caramelised but not black (as the wine fully evaporates the idea is that the fennel will caramelise but not burn). Add the verjuice and vinegar, scraping the base to deglaze the pan, and continue to reduce down until slightly thickened and concentrated. Smash the fennel up a bit with the back of a wooden spoon to give all its flavour to the sauce, then season to taste with a little extra salt if needed. Pass through a strainer, pressing down hard on the solids, which you can then discard or use for another meal. Return the gravy to the pan and keep warm until needed (or put it in the fridge if you are making it ahead of time).

Either preheat a chargrill pan over a medium heat or a charcoal grill with evenly burnt-down embers.

Brush the butterflied mullet with grapeseed oil and season the skin liberally with salt. Place the mullet, skin side down, on the grill and put a fish weight or small saucepan on top of the flesh closest to the head, as this is the thickest. This weight will help the heat transfer from skin to flesh without the need to turn the fish over. Cook for 2 minutes to develop good colour across the skin and warmth over the flesh, then move the weight to the centre of the fish and cook for another minute, or until the fish is about 60% cooked through. The warm fennel sauce and the warmth of your serving plate will finish cooking the fish.

Remove the mullet from the grill and place on warm serving plates, skin side up. Spoon the warm fennel gravy around the edges and serve immediately.