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Saturday night fish fry

Well it's not strictly a fish fry, it's actually a fish stew. Martha's out tonight which means we can indulge in some pescatorian love.
This recipe is from Lucy Boyd's kitchen memories. It's very similar to lots of Mediterranean fish stews but I make no apology for putting it on the blog.
I made it with a combo of prawns (instead of langoustines) cod (instead of monkfish) and sea bass (instead of red mullet) it still seemed to work.

The only thing I did differently is that I cooked the potatoes for a bit longer but that might be because I cut them a bit bigger

Here's the recipe


Fish stew with red mullet

For 4

Ingredients

1½ tbsp olive oil
6 waxy potatoes, peeled, rinsed and chopped into roughly 1cm cubes
4-5 garlic cloves, peeled, 1 kept whole, the rest finely chopped
A small piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3-4 small dried chillies, crushed
1x400g tin of whole peeled plum tomatoes
500ml good quality dry white win250g monkfish tail, skinned and sliced into thick pieces (optional)
450g palourdes clams, rinsed under cold running water, discard any broken or open clams
4 whole red mullet, filleted (or just 2 if adding the other fish)
4 fresh langoustines (optional)
4-8 slices of ciabatta bread
1 small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, washed and dried and roughly chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper

Method

1 Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan with a lid over a lowish heat, add the potatoes and cook gently, stirring to stop them from sticking or turning brown. When the potatoes are just cooked – about 10-15 minutes or until just tender when pierced with a small knife, add the garlic, ginger and chillies. Let the garlic cook but not brown. Add the tomatoes and their juice and season with salt and pepper. Stir to prevent the potatoes from sticking and to help break up the tomatoes – they should start to dissolve as the sauce cooks.

2 After 5 minutes or so add the wine and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. If using the additional fish, add the monkfish now, then the clams and then, over them, the mullet fillets and then the langoustines last. Otherwise, just place the mullet fillets on top of the potatoes. Put the lid on and simmer gently for about 3 minutes until the clams have opened and released their juices and the mullet fillets are cooked – the skin should be a beautiful pink colour and the flesh tender to touch. Discard any clams that remain closed.

3 Grill the ciabatta, then swipe the whole garlic clove over one side of each slice. Spoon the stew into flat bowls, being careful not to break up the red mullet. Place a langoustine on top of each along with the grilled bread, then freely scatter the chopped parsley on and to finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Serve.

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