Hake with Green Sauce and Clams

I have had several versions of this dish and cooked it many times, the “green sauce” comes from the amount of parsley used in the dish, its that classic Catalonian mix of garlic and parsley that just simply works together that makes it so enjoyable, the clams add a wonderful saltiness, done well you can taste the sea. Use MSC sustainably brought UK hake. 

You Will Need – Serves 4

4 fillets hake weighing about 180 g/ 6 oz each

Flour for dusting

100ml / 4 fl oz olive oil

2 garlic cloves 

2 good handfuls finely chopped parsley

2 potatoes peeled and very thinly sliced

Splash dry white wine

1 birds eye chilli

1 bay leaf

200 g / 7 oz fresh clams or mussels

Salt and pepper

To Make

Give the fish a good dusting of flour and season well, pour the olive oil into a casserole dish and when it’s hot add the garlic and fry for a minute then remove, by doing this you will give oil a real garlicky flavour which is a good base to start from. When the garlic is cooled crush or pound it in a pestle and mortar and mix it with the parsley, it is important that the parsley is as fine as you can get it . 

Brown the fish on both sides in the oil and remove from the pan and set aside then brown the potato slices. Add a splash of wine and then sit the fish on top of the potatoes, add the parsley and garlic and just enough water to cover the potatoes.  Add the chilli, bay leaf and clams, cover and cook gently for 7-8 minutes until the clams open, the fish should be moist and cooked by this time and the thin slices of potato all breaking up as you serve the fish from the pan. 

This dish needs pepper to season but there should be plenty of salt from the clams and the sauce should be a vibrant green from the parsley.