Seafood Made Simple: Hake with fennel soubise, bacon lardons and peas

⁠Hake, fennel soubise, bacon and peas. Picture: Chani Anderson

‘Surf and turf’ in its most generic form of langoustine and steak is a combination I’m not overly enthusiastic about. A recent expression I heard for the dish of ‘reef and beef ‘makes me even less so. 

Such luxury ingredients in my mind deserve to be the focal points of their own plates. The extravagance of excellently reared and dry aged beef can only but compete with these sweet crustaceans. 

I will have my langoustines to start and my steak medium-rare to follow please, and thank you very much.

In Goldie, a deeply roasted chicken stock is as close as turf as our surf gets. 

Our chicken and miso butter sauce, a regular feature on the menu, makes the most of the free-range East Ferry chicken we pick up in the English Market every Wednesday and Friday morning from O’Sullivan’s Poultry. 

After the breasts are removed and reserved for service we use the carcasses to make stock. 

Reduced and emulsified with a generous amount of butter, seasoned with a little blond miso it’s a sauce that’s helped us coax the reluctant fish eaters to fish lovers.

I’m also a huge fan of serving pork with seafood, especially if it’s been cured or smoked or saturated with spices, although we don’t use any pork at the restaurant.

We included a little on our menu in the early days, adding some nduja to an XO sauce that we served with seared scallops. 

Made with lots of salted, dried and smoked fish cheeks and pulverised langoustine shells with the usual fair of garlic, chilli, scallion and ginger. 

A deeply savoury sauce with origins in Hong Kong, that’s typically made with Jinhua ham.

We also braised some smoked ham hocks and flaked them through a coco bean stew with lots of herbs and served it with roasted monkfish. 

All delicious, we felt maybe it was getting in the way of our cuisine, and more importantly in the way of utilising the very most of each fish.

This weekend’s recipe, a simple dish of hake enjoys the perfect partnership of sweet peas and smoky salty bacon with a creamy aniseed fennel soubise.

Hake with fennel soubise, bacon lardons and peas

A simple dish of hake enjoys the perfect partnership of sweet peas and smoky salty bacon with a creamy aniseed fennel soubise.

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 55 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp rapeseed oil

• 2 fennel bulbs finely sliced.

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

• 100ml dry white wine

• 3 tbsp crème fraîche

• Juice half a lemon

• 4 x 110g hake fillets

• 100g smoked bacon lardons

• 150g frozen petit pois

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter

• 2 sprigs flat leaf parsley, finely chopped.

• Sea salt and black pepper

Method

1. To make the soubise, place a medium-sized saucepan on a medium low heat. Add 3 tablespoons of rapeseed oil, chopped fennel and garlic. Cook for 8- 10 minutes until sweetened and soften, taking care not to allow the pan to catch and the fennel to caramelise. Season with sea salt.

2. Once softened add the wine and turn up the heat to medium high. Bring to the boil and reduce, completely cooking off the wine. Turn the heat back down to medium low and add the crème fraîche, cook for 2 minutes, and remove from the heat.

3. Blitz the sauce using a handheld blender or food processor until creamy and puréed. Add the lemon juice and taste to adjust seasoning. Set aside to keep warm.

4. In a medium saucepan fry the bacon lardons in 1tb rapeseed oil until golden brown. Reduce the heat to medium add the peas and cook for 1 minute. Add the butter and toss to coat. Finish with the chopped parsley and cracked black pepper.

5. Remove the hake from the fridge 15 minutes before you are intending on cooking. Pat dry any excess moisture and season with fine sea salt.

6. Preheat your frying pan on a medium high heat for 2 minutes.

7. Add 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil before placing the hake in the pan laying the fillet down and away from you, to avoid oil splatters. Once in the pan do not disturb the fillet or move the pan. Allow the crust to caramelise evenly, approximately 2-3 minutes. Using a fish slice confidently lift the fillet from the pan and place on a tray.

8. Place the par-cooked fillet in a 190°C pre-heated oven for between 2-4 minutes, again depending on the size of the fish.

9. Serve immediately.

Chef know-how

Pre-heating your frying pan is the most crucial step in pan frying a piece of fish. The goal is to achieve an even temperature across the full surface area of the pan. Cold pockets will cause your fish to stick.

No matter what piece of fish you are cooking when removing it from a pan always lift from the tail end of the fish. It causes less damage to the skin.

Make sure you’re using a pan that’s large enough for the number of portions you’re cooking. Avoid overcrowding the pan, each addition to a cooking surface reduces the temperature of the pan. Work in batches if needs be.

The fennel soubise can be made ahead of time and keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days. It also freezes well.

Add a little vegetable stock to any leftovers for a quick cup of soup!