Fish of the Month

Spice fried fish with red onion

Henry Dimbleby

Henry started his career as a commis chef with the Michelin-starred chef Bruno Loubet (now of Bistrot Bruno Loubet on Clerkenwell Road), and used to bore on to friends working in other restaurants about his desire to democratise good food.

Eventually, Henry gave up his job as a chef – he lacked the dexterity to make ornamental carrots – and joined the Daily Telegraph as a gossip columnist and occasional feature writer.

From there he joined Bain & Company, a management consultancy, where he met John Vincent (who cofounded Leon with him). They travelled all over the country. All they found to eat on these trips was delicious but life-destroying fried chicken or cold neon-lit sandwiches. Infuriated by the difficulty of finding tasty, nutritious food on the run, they resolved to do something about it themselves. And so Leon was born.

As well as running Leon, Henry is co-founder of the not-for-profit Sustainable Restaurant Association and is creating an independent School Food Plan for the government.

My connection with seafood

I spent my childhood holidays messing about in boats in Devon, spinning for mackerel and knocking limpets off rocks.

Why sustainability is important to me

It is purely selfish. I would like my children and their children to be able to experience nature in the same way that I am lucky to.

http://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk

June 2013

Pollack or Lythe

This is a quick fish dish that works well as a side with a spread of vegetable dishes

Preparation

Mix the coriander, cumin, peppercorns and mustard seed with 2 teaspoons of sea salt and grind to a powder (best done in a clean coffee grinder). Put into a bowl and add the buckwheat flour. Check the seasoning. The flavour should be strong.
Put your widest frying pan on to a high heat and toast the crushed cashews. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
Peel the onions and slice as finely as you can. Add them to the pan with 2 tablespoons of the oil. Cook over a high heat, stirring continually so that they get a good colour and start to soften. Season, and remove the onions from the pan.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan. Cut the pollack fillets into rough credit-card-sized pieces, toss in the flour mix and shallow fry them until crisp and brown (about 2 minutes on each side). Unless you have a monster pan you will need to do this in batches.
Put the fish on a serving plate and sprinkle over the onions and nuts.

TIPS

Use any sustainable white fish – coley, whiting, pollock and pouting also work well.
If you don’t have the individual spices, substitute 3 teaspoons of garam masala.
Experiment with your own spice combinations. Add some chilli to the spice mix if you like it fiery.
This works well with a little chopped fresh coriander sprinkled on top.
If you don’t want to fry the onions, try just thinly slicing them and dressing them with lime juice and a touch of salt.

Recipe taken from Leon Naturally Fast Food by Henry Dimbleby & John Vincent, published by Conran Octopus

Cooking

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 teaspoons coriander seed
2 teaspoons cumin seed
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 teaspoons black mustard seed
2 tablespoons buckwheat or plain flour
a handful of crushed cashews
2 red onions
6 tablespoons rapeseed oil
400g pollack
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves

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