Whiting with Roast Potatoes, Chorizo, and Chargrilled Broccoli

Whiting is another oft overlooked white fish that copes well with strong flavours like the chorizo in this recipe. Like pollock it’s cheap, sustainable, meaty, with its own mild flavour but robust enough to take on others. Sometimes it’s easy to confuse price with a sense of superior flavour and cheaper fish somehow inferior. Plentiful and sustainable doesn’t mean you have to compromise on taste. Whiting is a round white fish, much like cod, silver hake, haddock etc. but much cheaper and more importantly even, is sustainable. If you’re looking for other examples of these be sure to ask your fishmonger. They know what’s in season so essentially what is at it’s best and plentiful now. Other examples include ling, white pollock, and black pollock (coley). You can also order fish online with Gannet Fishmongers here, which has opened up my ability to both eat more fish weekly and indeed experiment with different kinds of fish and seafood that I wouldn’t ordinarily have access to. They deliver nationwide.

Potatoes, wilted spinach and tenderstem broccoli

Cook off the chorizo first, reserving all the oil and set aside. This paprika spiked fat becomes a conduit with which to impart the nuance of flavour that gives this dish that something different. You can then use this oil to roast the potatoes and add some to your pan when frying the fish. In terms of the broccoli, parboiling and plunging into iced water stops the cooking process and retains a wonderfully vibrant green colour in the brassica while also providing function. It means that the broccoli is almost cooked when it goes on the griddle pan meaning that only a short, quick charring is required. This recipe involves a few different, but simple processes, that help enormously in bringing the dish together so try not to skip any stage.

Roast potatoes, chorizo, wilted spinach and roast cherry tomatoes

Ingredients

Serves 2-4

• 2 (or 4 depending on how many you’re serving) x 200g approx. whiting fillets or other white fish, skin on cut in half to make 2 smaller fillets per person
• 250-300g chorizo, skin removed and sliced in 1cm thick slices
• 200g bag of spinach
• 500g baby potatoes, cut in half lengthways
• 150g tenderstem broccoli
• A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chargrilled broccoli

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C Fan/220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7
2. Start by cooking off the sliced chorizo in a pan over a high heat and reserve the oil by straining the cooked chorizo through a sieve into a bowl. You should probably have a couple of tablespoons
3. Add the spinach to the same frying and stir for a minute until wilted and set aside.
4. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the broccoli and cook for approx. 3 minutes, strain and plunge into iced water. Set aside.
5. Parboil the potatoes for 3 minutes, add a tablespoon of the reserved chorizo oil and roast at 200C for about 25-30mins
6. Add a handful of halved cherry tomatoes, the spinach and the chorizo, stir together and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
7. Heat a pan on a medium to high heat, season the fillets well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and fry the whiting for 4 minutes skin side down, carefully turn over and fry for another 1 minute. Coat the broccoli with some of the chorizo oil, grill for a few minutes each side until lightly charred.

Whiting