The Fishy Fishy brasserie is the result of a long held dream of three close friends: James Ginzler, Paul Shovlin and Loz Talent. Importantly all the fish served is local, seasonal and sustainable. The first Fishy Fishy opened in Brighton with a second restaurant in Poole.
Bizarrely as someone who loves fish, I do not cook it that often. With all the recent coverage on waste and sustainability, knowing what to buy can be tricky. The Fishy Fishy cookbook is not just a recipe book, but also is crammed with fish facts, explaining how fish are caught, how to select which fish to buy and how to prepare them.
There are over 90 recipes, most with a full colour photo. The book is divided in to starters, BBQ & al fresco eating, everyday fish & shellfish, special occasions and sauces, side dishes and desserts.
By and large the recipes are simple, concentrating on the quality of the ingredients to showcase the flavours. As long as you can source good fish (which the book tells you how to do) all the other ingredients will be available in any supermarket and you should be able to product restaurant quality dishes at home.
Recipes that have caught my eye are scallops with chorizo or tempura oysters with chilli jam for a first course. The marinated Asian style fish fillets can be adapted to any fish and cooked on either a griddle or BBQ. An everyday classic fish pie is made both luxurious and economical by using off cuts of lots of different fish. For a special occasion there is a lobster feast with three different ways of cooking lobster, or a mixed fish platter with roasted potatoes.
The sauces section tells you how to make every accompaniment in the book encompassing mayonnaise, flavoured butters through to sauce vierge, rouille and mushy peas. Puddings are simple featuring chocolate brownies, tarte au citron and pear tart tartin amongst others.
All in all a fantastic first fish cookbook giving great achievable recipes, and, importantly, the knowledge and confidence to buy and cook fish successfully.
New Holland have kindly given me permission to share the recipe for fish burgers from the book.
Classic Fish Burgers
Ingredients
- 600 g line-caught pollock fillet (or any other white fish, skinned and boned)
- 1 large shallot (peeled and sliced)
- 1 tablespoon cornichons
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley flour (for dusting)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 6 ciabatta rolls (to serve)
- 1 large tomato (sliced)
- few lettuce leaves
- mayonnaise
Instructions
- Homemade fish burgers are infinitely superior to the shop bought variety and are very quick and easy to make.
- Dice the fish into 5-cm cubes, place in a food processor and process to a rough purée. Transfer the purée to a large mixing bowl. Put the shallot, cornichons, capers, parsley and seasoning in the food processor and purée until evenly blended. Tip out and mix with the fish purée.
- With floured hands, shape the mixture into 6 burgers. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour to firm up.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the fishburgers, two at a time. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned. Take care not to overheat the pan or the fishburgers will burn. Once cooked through and crispy set aside and cook the remaining burgers. Serve in a ciabatta roll with a slice of tomato, a lettuce leaf and some mayonnaise.
Fishy Fishy is published by New Holland £16.99.
Thank you to New Holland for my review copy.
Beth
Ooo this book looks fab – i follow Fishy Fishy on Twitter…I didn’t realise they had a place in Poole – a little closer to my home in Cornwall. Will have a look out for this book
Marie
What a great fish burgerrecipe – love the usage of different fish!
Peter
Capers and cornichons are my favourite things! going to make these
Sam
Gosh – these do sound good, and so easy too!