Utterly brill fish recipes from Gill Meller (2024)

Cooking – and eating – fish makes me happy. I love how the simplest treatments can turn it into something special. It’s not something we need to eat every day, so when we do it’s worth making it perfect.

That said, cooking fish is easy. Just remember, whether on the bone or off, fish cooks quickly, when it’s hot in the middle it’s done. But cooking is just one way of preparing the fish you eat. Salting, marinating, pickling and smoking it are all exciting things to consider and, of course, if your fish is really fresh it’s pretty good raw.

Brill with anchovies, cream and rosemary

It’s difficult to explain just how brilliant the combination in this sauce is. It’s big and totally rounded. When you eat it, it is as if the ingredients were invented only for this dish.

Serves 5
brill fillets 5, or 120-150g in total, skin on
extra-virgin olive oil 1 tbsp
anchovies in oil 8-12
dried chillies 1-2, deseeded and sliced
garlic cloves 8, peeled and thinly sliced
rosemary sprigs 4-6, leaves only
thyme sprigs 2 (optional)
double cream 75ml
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the brill fillets well with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large nonstick frying pan over a medium to high heat. When it’s hot, add the brill skin-side down. Fry for 4-5 minutes, or until the fish has cooked at least three-quarters of the way up its edge.

Remove the pan from the heat and use a spatula to remove the fish to a plate. Return the pan to the heat and add the anchovies, chilli, garlic and rosemary, and the thyme, if using.

Use a spatula to move the ingredients around the pan for 2-3 minutes, until the anchovies start to break down and the garlic and rosemary smell fragrant, then return the brill to the pan, this time skin-side up. Give the pan a shake, then add the cream along with 2 tbsp of water and bring the liquid up to a simmer. Cook for 4-6 minutes, until the sauce is thick and bubbling. Give the sauce a taste and adjust the seasoning if you need to. Remove from the heat.

Place one piece of fish on each plate, spoon over some sauce and serve straight away with good rustic bread and a dressed green salad, or with buttery mash and steamed purple sprouting broccoli.

Fried squid with garlic and parsley

This is a classic way to prepare and cook squid and also, quite possibly, the most delicious way to eat it. Smaller squid work best.

Serves 6-8, tapas style
cornflour 50g
plain flour 50g
whole squid 500g, cleaned, body cut into 1cm rings, tentacles left whole
sunflower oil 500ml, for deep frying
extra-virgin olive oil 2 tbsp
flat-leaf parsley 2 tbsp, chopped
garlic clove ½ , peeled and grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper
lemon wedges to serve (optional)

Combine the cornflour and plain flour in a bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Pour the sunflower oil into a wok or large saucepan so that it comes halfway up the sides of the pan, then place the pan over a medium-high heat. If you’re using a thermometer, heat the oil to 180C. If not, you can check the oil is at the right temperature by dropping in a small cube of bread: after 1 minute, it should turn golden and crisp.

Take a handful of squid rings and tentacles and turn them through the flour to coat. Then place them in a sieve and shake off the excess flour so it falls back into the bowl.

When all the squid pieces are coated, gently add them a handful at a time to the hot oil. Fry for 3-4 minutes, until they’re golden and crisp, then lift them out with a slotted spoon on to kitchen paper. Allow the oil in the pan to heat back up again and repeat with the remaining squid, until all the rings and tentacles are cooked. Combine the olive oil with the chopped parsley and garlic and mix well.

Heap the squid into a large bowl, or divide it between several smaller plates. Spoon over the parsley and garlic dressing and serve sprinkled with salt and with some fresh lemon wedges for squeezing, if you like.

Salted pollack with potatoes, cream and marjoram

This makes such a good supper. It is so much more than fish and potatoes. You can take out the dried salted fish and on the surface it would look much the same, but underneath the crisp and caramelised potato topping it wouldn’t have the extraordinary intensity that the salted pollack brings. To make your own salted fish, cover a large fillet of very fresh pollack, cod or other white fish in fine salt and leave it in the fridge for 48 hours. Wash the salt off the fish and hang it to dry somewhere cool and airy (a porch, lean-to or shed is perfect). It will hang for many weeks, even months. When you’re ready to use it, soak it for 12 to 18 hours in several changes of fresh cold water.

Serves 6-8
white floury potatoes 1kg, such as Désirée or Maris Piper
onion 1 large, thinly sliced
garlic cloves 4-6, peeled and thinly sliced or chopped
marjoram 2 tbsp, plus a couple of stems for topping (optional)
double cream 500ml
salted pollack or cod fillets 300-400g, thoroughly soaked, skinned and sliced into small pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 160C/gas mark 2-3. Peel and slice the potatoes thinly into 2-3mm rounds. Place the slices in a large bowl with the onions, garlic and marjoram, and plenty of black pepper (it may not need salt as the fish will bring this to the mix). Place the cream into a small pan over a medium heat and bring it up to a simmer. Pour the hot cream over the potatoes and turn well to combine.

Place a relatively neat layer of overlapping potatoes in the bottom of a large round dish, about 20-25cm in diameter and 5cm deep. Scatter over some of the sliced fish, then make a second layer of overlapping potatoes. Continue until you have used up the fish, finishing with a layer of potato on top. Pour over all the remaining cream from the bowl. Top with a couple of marjoram flower stems, which I think look lovely, dry and brittle as glass in the oven – but of course they’re not essential.

Place the dish in the oven and bake the layered potato and fish pie for 1 hour, pressing the potatoes down firmly once or twice during cooking using a spatula, until the potatoes are tender, the top layer is golden and the sauce is bubbling. Remove the dish from the oven and allow it time to settle. It will be much better, and still nice and hot, after 30 minutes of sitting. Serve with a green salad or steamed, lemony purple sprouting broccoli.

Yogurt and cardamom sorbet with brown butter and poppy seed biscuits

I like the way the cardamom and orange seem somewhat silent in the cold ice of this delicate yogurt sorbet. They are there, but only just – dancing around the edge with a subtlety that just begins to warm the whiteness.

To make the sorbet, place the sugar and honey in a pan with the cardamom pods, the zest and 4 tbsp of water. Place over a low heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the syrup begins to thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Put the yogurt in a mixing bowl. Strain the syrup through a sieve on to the yogurt and whisk thoroughly. Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn until soft set. Transfer to a plastic container, cover and place in the freezer until frozen (about 3-4 hours).

To make the shortbread, heat the oven to 170C/gas mark 3. Place the butter in a pan over a low heat. Shake the pan once in a while to stop the butter spitting. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until the butter smells fragrant and nutty and you see the solids browning on the base of the pan. Skim any foamy bubbles from the top. Place the sugar in a bowl, then pour over the butter, leaving the solids in the base of the pan. Mix well. Combine the flour, cornflour and salt in a separate bowl, then add to the butter and sugar mixture. Use a spatula to bring everything together to a soft dough. Spread the dough evenly over a nonstick 25 x 15cm baking tray. Press it level with a spatula.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with caster sugar and the poppy seeds. Use a knife to score the biscuit into rectangular fingers. Allow to cool.

Remove the sorbet from the freezer 15 minutes before serving. Give each person a spoonful with a crumbly biscuit alongside.

Gather by Gill Meller is published by Quadrille at £25. To order a copy for £20.50, go to bookshop.theguardian.com