Hugh's Three Good Things

I mentioned a while back about buying this excellent cookbook at the Matakana Village Bookshop. Well now the publishers have kindly supplied me the following recipe from the book (page 222/223)  for you to try:

Fish, onion, olives

The strong, aromatic presence of onions and black olives works

a treat with well-flavoured fish and they give this dish a lovely

Mediterranean feel. I often make this with mackerel fillets, but

the suggested swaps are all good choices – from a sustainability

angle too.

Serves 2

3 tablespoons olive oil

2–3 large onions, finely

sliced

3–4 bay leaves (optional)

A sprig of thyme (optional)

75g stoned black olives,

roughly chopped

50ml white wine

Fillets from 2 medium

mackerel or gurnard, or 1 small sea bass

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add

the onions, with the bay leaves and thyme, if using, and stir well

to break up the onion slices. Once they are sizzling, turn the heat

down low. Cook very gently, stirring from time to time, for 20–25

minutes, until the onions are very soft and golden. You can cover

the pan if you like, for part of the cooking time, to help them sweat

rather than brown.

Add the olives and wine to the pan. Turn up the heat to medium

and cook for about 10 minutes until the wine has evaporated.

Season with salt and pepper. Push the onions to the edges of the

pan to make space for the fish in the middle.

Lay the fish fillets in the pan, flesh side down. Turn them over

after a few minutes to cook the skin side, spreading the onions

over the fish to help the heat penetrate. They should be cooked

through in about 8 minutes.

Grind some pepper over the fish and serve hot, straight from the

pan, or at room temperature, with new potatoes or couscous.

Swap Fillets of red mullet are also delicious cooked this way.