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125 ml (4 fl oz) dry white wine

leaves of about 10 sprigs parsley

salt, cayenne, paprika

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

Start by preparing the majado. Brush out a small oven dish with oil and in it put the whole tomatoes and garlic. Bake in the oven until the skins darken, about 20 minutes. Peel and cut up and seed the tomatoes. Skin the garlic. Put the almonds into the oven on a baking sheet and leave briefly until they are a pale toasty colour. Put all these items, with the pine kernels, into a processor or mortar and reduce to a purée with the aid of the white wine. Add the parsley (roughly chopped if you are using a mortar) and seasoning to taste.

Choose a gratin dish that will hold the bream comfortably but rather more closely than for the recipe above. Brush it out with oil. Slash the bream and put lemon slices into the cuts; season. Put into the dish, pour over the wine and bake for 10–15 minutes, depending on size. Spoon the majado over the fish, lower the heat slightly and complete the cooking – 20–30 minutes – basting occasionally.

Serve with the lemon wedges.

BAKED AND STUFFED SEA BREAM (Besugo relleno al horno)

This is a recipe for the neat-fingered, though the characteristic structure of the bream makes the business of boning it much easier than you might have supposed. Obviously the larger the fish, the better. For this recipe buy one large bream rather than two smaller ones: 1½ kg (3 lb) will give you plenty for four. Ask the fishmonger to clean out the innards via the gills, leaving the belly intact. He should also scale the fish.

Serves 4

1 sea bream weighing 1½ kg (3 lb)

olive oil

salt, pepper

125 g (4 oz) chopped onion

2 large cloves garlic, skinned, crushed, finely chopped

500 g (1 lb) ripe firm tomatoes, skinned, seeded

leaves of 1 small handful of parsley, chopped

1 small hot chilli

STUFFING: see squid stuffing, p. 406

Put the bream on a board. With a small sharp knife, cut along the dark central line that runs from head to tail down the centre of the body. Ease away from this cut up towards the top of the fish, then towards the bottom, scraping and cutting the flesh from the bones. Snip the backbone at head and tail ends, and draw it out – the tricky part. The bream is now a floppy pocket, ready to be stuffed. Brush a baking dish with olive oil and put the fish into it. Season and set aside.

Next make the sofrito which acts as sauce. It is best to use an earthenware dish so that everything cooks slowly; with gas and electric, it is wise to slip a heat-diffuser beneath it. In the dish, cook the onion and garlic gently in enough oil to cover the base. As they become tender, add the tomato, parsley and chilli. Cook to an unwatery purée, tasting from time to time and removing the chilli when the sofrito is piquant enough. Add seasoning, too.

Meanwhile, make the stuffing and fill the bream pocket. Skewer the cut edges with wooden cocktail sticks, leaving them slightly apart to show the stuffing.

Spoon the sofrito round the fish and bake as in the recipes above. If need be, protect the top of the bream with butter papers, and baste the fish occasionally.

FILETS DE DORADE À L’ANTILLAISE

I was surprised to read this recipe in a local French newspaper, as rum in the kitchen is usually kept for sweet things, chocolate desserts in particular. I tried it and everyone like it. The secret is not to overdo the rum. (I’m not sure how genuinely West Indian the recipe is, or whether the title is just a genuflection by some French cook to the source of the most powerful ingredient.) Croakers and drums, and other lively tasting white fish, adapt well to this treatment.

Serves 6

6 fillets of sea bream, porgy, etc.

4 tablespoons rum

salt, pepper, cayenne

4 tablespoons butter

250 ml (8 fl oz) crème fraîche or mixed soured and double or whipping cream

2 large egg yolks

Preheat the oven to gas 6–7, 200–220°C (400–425°F). Choose a dish into which the fillets fit closely in a single