Friday 16 October 2009

Baked Red Mullet with Pine Kernel Stuffing [#170]

"The fishmonger has Red Mullet!" came the cry from Hubby. In land-locked Oxford, this is a rare thing indeed, so all hands on deck to get this lined up for tonight. Hayman's in the Covered Market in Oxford (I've mentioned them before) did a marvellous job with a handsome big mullet, deboning it, yet leaving it whole and ready for the rich, Sicilian-inspired stuffing of garlic, shallot, sultanas, rosemary, capers, black olives, lemon zest, breadcrumbs and parsley - I know, sounds too much, but it was delicious, almost sweet and sour, and complemented the flaking flesh of the fish beautifully. Another surprise this, as I would not normally have gone for this recipe, but the flavours really worked. If the mullet cry goes up again, we would repeat this recipe, definitely.

2 comments:

  1. Dougal asked for red mullet ('whenever you have it next') in our nearest fish mongers and was told in no uncertain terms (and I quote) that the fishmonger was "fed up of folk coming in asking for fancy ingredients written for fancy recipes written by fancy folk in london'. We didn't go back to that fishmongers and about two months later discovered a WONDERFUL (proper) fishmongers near D's work. Who do indeed stock red mullet and think nothing of it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. mmm, sounds lovely! Red mullet has its own strong flavour, so I think it can stand up to treatment like this. We rarely see ones that big here though.

    ReplyDelete