Hake with Fennel Salad & Crunchy Salsa Verde
Hake is a real sustainability success story and this local hake is a firm favourite in our restaurants as well as in the online seafood market. It is a wonderful fish, soft, juicy and very luxurious. Surround it with salty anchovies and capers, fragrant fresh fennel and orange and a vibrant salsa verde and you have the perfect fish dish. This recipe serves 2 people.
Ingredients
For the roasted hake: 2 fillets of MSC Hake, a few capers, 2 anchovy fillets, olive oil and salt to season
For the fennel salad: ½ red onion finely sliced, ½ bulb of fennel, a small handful of fresh mint, 1 anchovy, ½ an orange segmented with the juice, good olive oil and Agrodolce (or sweet vinegar)
For the salsa verde: Around a tablespoon full each of fresh mint, tarragon, basil leaves, dill, flat leaf parsley, and chives, ½ stalk of celery finely sliced, 1tbsp Dijon mustard, juice from ½ lemon, good olive oil and Agrodolce (or sweet vinegar)
Method
To roast the hake, preheat your oven and get it really hot, around 220C as fish loves heat. Put a splash of olive oil onto an oven tray or dish that will fit your fish. Coat the fish in the oil and season well with salt, add a few capers and one anchovy fillet on top of each piece of fish. Put your fish into the very hot for around 10 minutes, you just want the flesh of the fish to set and the skin to crisp up nicely. While your fish is cooking make the fennel salad and salsa verde.
Slice your fennel, ideally with a mandolin, so you end up with very fine shavings. Put into a large bowl and mix with the red onion and fresh mint. Add the orange segments and juice from the orange into the bowl. Chop the anchovy and mix in a small bowl with a good glug of olive oil and a splash of the sweet vinegar, add to the fennel mix and toss it all together. Set aside.
Remove the tarragon leaves from the stalks and remove any woody stalks from the flat leaf parsley. Then crunch all the herbs together and chop finely by hand, you want everything mixed and chopped but not pureed. Put in a bowl with the chopped celery and the Dijon mustard and mix it all together. The celery is an unusual addition, but it adds a great crunch to the salsa verde. Add in a good glug of olive oil, a splash of sweet vinegar and the lemon juice and mix into a sauce.
To serve, put a fillet of hake on each plate with a pile of the fennel salad and a good spoonful of the salsa verde. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice over your fish.
Hake is a real sustainability success story and this local hake is a firm favourite in our restaurants as well as in the online seafood market. It is a wonderful fish, soft, juicy and very luxurious. Surround it with salty anchovies and capers, fragrant fresh fennel and orange and a vibrant salsa verde and you have the perfect fish dish. This recipe serves 2 people.
Ingredients
For the roasted hake: 2 fillets of MSC Hake, a few capers, 2 anchovy fillets, olive oil and salt to season
For the fennel salad: ½ red onion finely sliced, ½ bulb of fennel, a small handful of fresh mint, 1 anchovy, ½ an orange segmented with the juice, good olive oil and Agrodolce (or sweet vinegar)
For the salsa verde: Around a tablespoon full each of fresh mint, tarragon, basil leaves, dill, flat leaf parsley, and chives, ½ stalk of celery finely sliced, 1tbsp Dijon mustard, juice from ½ lemon, good olive oil and Agrodolce (or sweet vinegar)
Method
To roast the hake, preheat your oven and get it really hot, around 220C as fish loves heat. Put a splash of olive oil onto an oven tray or dish that will fit your fish. Coat the fish in the oil and season well with salt, add a few capers and one anchovy fillet on top of each piece of fish. Put your fish into the very hot for around 10 minutes, you just want the flesh of the fish to set and the skin to crisp up nicely. While your fish is cooking make the fennel salad and salsa verde.
Slice your fennel, ideally with a mandolin, so you end up with very fine shavings. Put into a large bowl and mix with the red onion and fresh mint. Add the orange segments and juice from the orange into the bowl. Chop the anchovy and mix in a small bowl with a good glug of olive oil and a splash of the sweet vinegar, add to the fennel mix and toss it all together. Set aside.
Remove the tarragon leaves from the stalks and remove any woody stalks from the flat leaf parsley. Then crunch all the herbs together and chop finely by hand, you want everything mixed and chopped but not pureed. Put in a bowl with the chopped celery and the Dijon mustard and mix it all together. The celery is an unusual addition, but it adds a great crunch to the salsa verde. Add in a good glug of olive oil, a splash of sweet vinegar and the lemon juice and mix into a sauce.
To serve, put a fillet of hake on each plate with a pile of the fennel salad and a good spoonful of the salsa verde. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice over your fish.
