Pan fried Hake is a simple cooking method that delivers crisp, golden skin and flaky white flesh. This delicious recipe pairs it up with some seasonal shellfish.
Preparation time will be about 25 minutes, allow 15 minutes for cooking time. Quantities below are for 4. NB The time taken to pan-fry depends on the thickness of the fish, so keep a close eye on it.
Ingredients For Pan Fried Hake with Mussel Broth
4 x 180g portions of hake from Walter Purkis & Sons
24 mussels from Walter Purkis & Sons
1 carrot, finely diced
1 leek, finely diced
2 shallots, finely diced
1 stick of celery, cut into matchsticks
1 bag spinach
100ml white wine
300ml fish stock
Olive oil
To finish the fish:
30g butter
1/2 lemon, juiced
Sea salt
Cooking Method For Fried Hake with Mussel Broth
First prepare the mussels: Wash, scrub and debeard the mussels. (The “Beards” are small brown threads that can be found sticking out from the joint between the two shell halves. The are the remains of the animals tethering system that attaches it to a rock or other underwater surface. Pull the beard hard towards the hinge or more pointed end of the mussel. Remove it completely and throw away.) While you are cleaning look for any open shells, if you find one tap it on your work top – any that do not close when tapped should be discarded. If you are not ready to cook right away put the cleaned mussels in a fresh bowl of cold water until ready to use. You might want to change this water to remove any salt or sand that comes out of the mussels.
Pat dry the Hake with a paper towel. If you want to make a couple of small slashes in the skin which will be an attractive detail for the finished dish.Heat up a non-stick pan until almost smoking hot then add a drizzle of olive oil. Place hake, skin side down in the pan and turn down the heat.
While the Hake is cooking slowly with the skin side down you will see the flesh colour change from translucent to white. When it is cooked (white) halfway up the fish add a scattering of salt plus the butter and lemon juice. Turn off the heat and turn the fish portions over allowing them to finish cooking using the remaining heat in the pan.
While the hake is finishing its cooking heat a large heavy based pot that is big enough to contain all the shellfish. Add in the mussels along with the white wine and cook until all of the mussels have opened.
Drain the mussels and pass this liquid through a fine sieve or better use muslin cloth to ensure all grit is removed. Remove the meat from the shells but keep a couple in the half shell per person to garnish the dish . Put to one side where they will keep warm
Returning to the heavy based pot, add the fish stock, mussel stock and all of the vegetables apart from the spinach and cook gently until tender. When cooked add the spinach which will cook very quickly and the mussels.
Divide the contents between the bowls and top each one with a Hake portion. Serve right away
This pan fried Hake recipe come from the Fish is the Dish website where you can find this and lots of other fishy recipes.
