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without browning it. Add the mushrooms, cooking them slowly until the juices run: if you use wild mushrooms, you may need at this point to turn up the heat to evaporate excessive wateriness. Aim to end up with a moist rather than a wet result.

Stir in the breadcrumbs and plenty of parsley. Spread out in the gratin dish and put the mullet on top. Bake for 20–30 minutes, or until cooked.

If you have three mullet, it helps with the serving to fillet the fish and lay the six halves skin side up on the breadcrumb base.

Tuck the lemon wedges between the fish and serve.

ROUGETS BARBETS À LA BOURGUIGNONNE

In southern France, red mullet are sometimes wrapped in vine leaves before being grilled. In this recipe from Burgundy, they are wrapped in vine leaves and stuffed with grapes before being baked. The sauce is a variation of beurre blanc*, using a reduction of white wine and the juices, with shallots, as the base. If you don’t have access to a vine, you will find packets of the leaves in brine at a delicatessen. Soak them to reduce the saltiness: only blanch them if they are not supple enough to bend round the fish without breaking.

Serves 6

6 mullet of medium size, scaled, cleaned

salt, pepper

375 g (12 oz) white grapes, skinned, halved, seeded

12 vine leaves, blanched 30 seconds

250 ml (8fl oz) Chablis or other dry white wine

4 tablespoons finely chopped shallot

4 tablespoons crème fraîche or double cream

175 g (6 oz) unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to gas 7, 220°C (425°F).

Season the mullet with salt and pepper, put back the livers into each cavity with some grape halves. Wrap two vine leaves round each fish. Put them closely together in an ovenproof dish, so that the leaves do not unwrap. Pour in a little of the wine, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes or until done. Keep warm.

As the fish cook, boil down the remaining wine and the shallots in a shallow pan until you are left with 3 or 4 tablespoons of moist purée. Add the juices from cooking the fish plus the cream and boil down again by half. Let the reduction cool slightly, then whisk in the butter, keeping the pan off the heat so that there is no chance of the butter oiling. Add the remaining grapes. Reheat cautiously, check for seasoning. Put the fish on separate plates or one large dish and pour the sauce round.

SURMULETS AUX AUBERGINES

Aubergines or egg plants go well with certain fish, ones that have a pronounced flavour like red mullet, but they need a little tomato as a go-between.

Serves 6

3 large mullet or 6 medium-sized mullet

salt, pepper

2–3 long aubergines

1 medium onion, chopped fine

olive oil

500 g (1 lb) tomatoes, skinned, seeded, chopped

1 large clove garlic, chopped fine

1 level teaspoon sugar (optional)

cayenne pepper

125 ml (4 fl oz) dry white wine or 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

up to 250 ml (8 fl oz) fish, veal or poultry stock

bouquet garni, basil, coriander or chervil

Preheat the oven to gas 7, 220°C (425°F). Season the cavities of the fish and put back the livers.

Slice the aubergines, unpeeled, so that you get 30 slices plus a couple to act as tasters (use up the rounded ends in another dish). Blanch them for 2 minutes in boiling salted water, then drain and dry them on kitchen paper.

Make a tomato purée by softening the onion in a minimum of oil in a wide pan over a low heat, then adding tomato and garlic. Cook fast and briefly so that you end up with a coherent and unwatery but fresh-tasting mass of tomato; check for seasoning and add the sugar as well as some cayenne if it needs livening up.

Spread out the aubergine slices on an oiled baking tray and put a mound of tomato on top of each. Slide into the top of the oven. Check after 10 minutes. Be prepared to give longer.

Brush out a baking dish that will accommodate the mullet closely with olive oil. Lay the fish in it, put in wine or vinegar and enough stock to bring the liquid level just a little way up the fish, about ½ cm (¼ inch). Add the bouquet and