With its distinctive skin it is easy to see how the Red Mullet gets its name. This pan fried red mullet recipe pairs up the fillet with a tasty bubble and squeak cake.

Red Mullet has a firm slightly pink flesh that works well with lots of different flavours. It often refered to as a Mediterranean fish but it is also caught in waters around the UK. The fish is considered to be a sustainable choice for larger fish and out of the summer breeding season (May-July).

Preparation time for this recipe will be about 5 minutes allow a further 5 for cooking. Ingredients below are for two however its easy to scale up for more people.

Ingredients For Pan Fried Red Mullet

2 Red mullet fillets, skin left on from Walter Purkis & Sons
200g Leftover mashed potato
125g Leftover cabbage
2 tbsp Leftover peas
2 tbsp Sweetcorn
1 tbsp Chopped flat-leaf parsley
Vegetable oil for frying
2tbsp Tomato chutney
2 Spring onions, shredded, to garnish

Cooking Method For Pan Fried Red Mullet

Mix the mashed potatoes with the cabbage, peas, sweetcorn and parsley and season well with salt and pepper. Divide the mixture into 2 and shape into cakes. This is a great way to use up leftovers and you can vary the ingredients according to what you have in your fridge.

Heat enough oil to cover the base of a frying pan. Then add the cakes and fry, turning, until they are heated through and golden on both sides.

Next pan fry the fish with the skin side down  until it is crispy. Flip over and briefly fry the flesh side. You can see when the fish is cooked as the flesh will loose its translucence and become whiter and firmer.

Serve the red mullet pieces on top of the fried bubble and squeak cake, topped with the spring onions and serve with a tomato chutney.

This red mullet recipe come from the Fish is the Dish website where you can find this and lots of other fishy recipes.