Recipe: whole baked Dover sole with blistered olives and tomatoes

Shopping & storing fish

It goes without saying that you should buy the freshest fish available to you.

You may be lucky enough to have a good fishmonger on your doorstep, or even access to the fishermen themselves if you live near the coast. If not, some of the better supermarkets now employ trained staff on their fish counters, but I recommend online fishmongers such as Rockfish and The Cornish Fishmonger which are both great for landlocked fish lovers.

Remember to take a cool bag with you to bring the fish home in, it will stay much fresher. And always check the cleanliness of wherever you’re buying from. Is the fish displayed well? Check out the staff behind the counter; are they confident and do they handle their seafood cleanly and carefully? Ask questions. Staff should be able to answer any questions you have. If they can’t, give the place a wide berth.

No fish or seafood should smell ‘fishy’ – if it smells at all unpleasant, don’t buy it! Make sure the whole fish looks good. It should be intact with no visible damage to any part. Eyes should be bright and clear, gills should be vivid red, and any scales that you’d expect should be in place. Flat fish should be firm with some sea slime on their surface. Always check the underside of flat fish, as this is where they will show any signs of red bruising. Oily fish should have retained their natural, vibrant colours and be firm to the touch.

Lobster & crabs

When buying lobsters and crabs, again, they should be alive. Check for bubbles coming from their mouths – this is a sign that they have become stressed and will affect the quality of their meat. Lobsters should have long antennae; short ones suggest the lobster has been stored for a long while and has either begun to eat itself or been eaten by others!

Molluscs

Molluscs need to be alive when you buy them, so check their status. If clams, cockles, mussels or oysters have open shells, tap them firmly; if they don’t close readily, don’t buy them, as this indicates the shellfish have died.

One exception to the ‘live’ rule is scallops, which often come to the market ready prepared and cut from the shell. However, they should still smell sweet, and not ‘fishy’. Also, make sure they feel firm and haven’t been left to soak. If any of these criteria aren’t met, leave them in the shop.

Cephalopods

Finally, the cephalopods – squid, octopus and cuttlefish – really need to be eaten within a couple of days of being caught. Eyes should be bright and skin should be intact with no signs of the colour changing to pink, as this suggests they’ve seen better days.

Storage

If you have found a fresh bargain or someone has brought you lots of freshly caught fish, don’t turn it away – most fish freezes well. Store on a tray on a dry cloth, uncovered, in the coldest area of the refrigerator. Don’t let it sit in water or ice, as sea fish don’t live in fresh water and contact with ice or water increases the speed of decomposition of their flesh. The refrigerator needs to be between 0-2°C (32-36°F). Stored carefully, dry and on the bone, most fish will be fine for several days. The same applies to filleted fish.

If you won’t be eating the fish within a few days, take it off the bone, make sure it’s completely dry, then wrap tightly in clingfilm and put it in the freezer as soon as you can. It will keep quite happily for up to two months.

In the case of lobster and crab, cook before freezing, pick or crack the meat from the shells, cool, then wrap securely before putting into the freezer. Freeze the shells too (for use in sauces and stocks). Always allow fish and seafood to defrost slowly in the refrigerator on a tray lined with kitchen paper or – even better – a perforated tray with another tray underneath to catch the water.

I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping your fish dry while storing. It will last longer and cook better.

Recipe: whole baked Dover sole with blistered olives and tomatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 x 500g (1lb 2oz) Dover sole, skinned and trimmed

For the spice rub

• 4 teaspoons fennel seeds

• 1 teaspoon dried chilli

• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds

• 2 teaspoons sea salt

For the dressing

• 60g (2¼oz) black olives, pitted

• 60g (2¼oz) green olives, pitted

• 20 cherry tomatoes, halved

• olive oil, for drizzling and cooking

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• zest and juice of 1 lemon

• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds

• 1 teaspoon chilli flakes

• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 2 sprigs of rosemary, picked and chopped

• 1 red onion, finely chopped

• 12 new potatoes, washed and cooked

• 1 x 50g (1¾oz) can of anchovies in olive oil, sliced lengthways (reserve the oil)

• a handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Cooking Dover sole on the bone is the only way to cook the species, in my opinion.

This recipe is a really lovely way to keep it simple, but with a little touch of difference by using a spice rub.

Colouring the fish first in a pan may seem a bit of a faff, but that touch of direct heat gives the fish a slight caramelised edge that really brings out the wonderful, sticky, lip-smacking character of Dover sole.

Baking the fish in essentially a dressing of all the ingredients creates a lovely delicious marriage of flavours.

By all means play around with your own spice rub and mixture of ingredients with this technique. The end results are just right for this type of fish.

1. First, make the spice rub for the fish. In a frying pan over a medium heat, lightly toast the spices with the salt for 5 minutes. Take care, as you don’t want them to burn! Transfer them to a spice grinder and blitz until fine. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C Fan (400°F), Gas Mark 6.

3. Place the olives and cherry tomatoes on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes until blistered. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Keep the oven on for the fish.

4. In a small saucepan, combine the extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, fennel seeds, chilli flakes, garlic and rosemary. Gently heat over a low heat for 10 minutes, then set aside to infuse further.

5. To cook the fish, heat a large frying pan over a medium heat (depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook in two batches). Drizzle some oil into the pan. When it’s hot, add the red onion and cook for 5 minutes until it softens and starts to colour. Transfer the onion to the tray with the blistered olives and keep warm.

6. Season each fish with 2 teaspoons of the rub. Wipe out the frying pan and drizzle in some more oil, then carefully lay the fish into the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Turn them over and cook for another 2 minutes.

7. Lift and transfer the fish to a roasting tray large enough to hold them all. Scatter the new potatoes, olives, tomatoes, red onion and anchovies with their oil over the fish, then pour over the infused oil. Bake in the oven for 8–10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from the oven and squeeze over the lemon juice, then sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the rub and the chopped parsley.

8. Transfer the fish to serving plates and spoon the cooking juices and vegetables equally among each plate. Serve simply with a green or tomato salad.

Nathan Outlaw On Fish: A Seafood Handbook is published by Kyle Books, priced £30. Photography by Kate Whitaker.