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By Root 1053 0

a little more in its own heat – remove it from the oven and pour off the juice into a shallow pan through a strainer. Boil it down steadily to a good flavour: it should be quite sharp, but pleasantly so. Pour over the fish, adding any debris of parsley and olives from the strainer. If the bay leaves look fagged out, discard them, and add a couple of fresh ones.

TO EAT HOT Serve immediately with plenty of bread and dry white wine, and slices of lemon or orange ranged neatly down the mullet.

TO EAT COLD Leave to cool, turning the fish from time to time. Serve chilled, so that the juices have a chance to turn to a light parsley-flecked jelly. Decorate finally with a few slices of lemon or orange.

MULLET BAKED WITH FENNEL AND PASTIS

I used to cook mullet en papillote, but now feel that this treatment is only suitable for very firm fish. Baking in a hot oven works better.

Serves 6

6 mullet

salt, pepper

3 heads of fennel, cut into strips, the leaves saved and chopped

3 tablespoons pastis

1½ teaspoons thyme

1½ teaspoons fennel seed

olive oil

lemon wedges

STUFFING

roes and liver from the fish, if any or 3 pairs herring roes, soft or hard

6 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon thyme

1½ teaspoons fennel seed

3 tablespoons chopped shallot or onion

3–4 tablespoons butter

salt, cayenne pepper

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

Season the mullet cavities with salt and pepper. Blanch the fennel strips in boiling salted water until they are almost tender. Mix the pastis with thyme and fennel seed, then add it to the drained fennel strips and put them into an oiled ovenproof baking dish.

For the stuffing, crush the roes and mix them with the breadcrumbs and most of the leaves saved from the fennel. Crush thyme and fennel seed in a mortar and add to the crumbs. Soften the shallot or onion slowly in the butter: when it is soft and yellowish, add to the crumbs. Stuff the mullet with this mixture – season the mixture with salt and cayenne pepper first – and put the fish on top of the fennel strips in the dish, head to tail. Brush them over with oil, season and bake in a hot oven, gas 7, 220 °C (425 °F). Test after 15 minutes. Be prepared to give them a little longer. Scatter with the last of the chopped fennel leaves and serve with lemon wedges.

MULLET IN CHARENTE STYLE (Meuille à la charentaise)

The butter of the Charente is famous and it combines well with the vegetables that come from the neighbouring market gardens of the Marais, just to the north. I once read that Rabelais had introduced the tomato to France, sending seeds from Rome to his friend and master, the abbot of Maillezais, but I have never seen any real evidence that this was true – although it is agreeable to sit by the abbey ruins on one of the Marais canals and think about such things. Certainly tomatoes, garlic and onions now flourish in those parts – all the good things of that favoured region come together in this recipe.

Serves 6

6 mullet, about 250 g (8 oz) each

salt, pepper

175 g (6 oz) butter

6 cloves garlic, halved

leaves of 1 handful of parsley

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

4 tablespoons dry white wine

cayenne pepper, sugar (see recipe)

3 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan

Season the mullet cavities with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to gas 6, 200 °C (400 °F).

Reduce two-thirds of the butter, the garlic and parsley to a crumbly chopped mass in the processor. Cook the tomatoes down to a purée in a shallow pan buttered with a little of the remaining butter. Add the wine. Do not overcook – you want to keep the freshness of the tomato flavour. Season with cayenne, and a pinch or two of sugar if the tomatoes are on the tasteless side.

Meanwhile, bake the mullet in a buttered shallow dish for about 10 minutes. Pour over the very hot sauce, scatter with the Parmesan and put back into the oven until the mullet are cooked. About another 10 minutes.

GROUPERS see SEA BASS

GURNARD see A FEW WORDS