This is a delicious recipe for a family meal but also perfect for entertaining as the work is all done in advance and you only need to cook the fish in the oven in the last 15 minutes before serving.
Mixing Irini’s Spice Paste with the crumb and using that as topping to the fish makes for a warming and deeply satisfying dish.
Ingredients (serves 2)
- 2 halibut fillets with their skin on, 200g each
- 1 medium sized onion, roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 100m vegetable stock or 1 tbsp vegetable stock powder
- 2 leeks, trimmed, washed and thinly sliced
- 1 tin cannellini beans, 400g
- 200g young spinach leaves
- 25g fresh sour dough crumbs
- 1 tbsp Irini’s spice paste
- Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling and frying
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ lemon, zest only
- A squeeze of lemon
- Goats cheese to grate
- Salt and pepper to taste
- A pinch of sweet paprika
Method
Start by cooking the leeks, beans and spinach.
Bring a large pan to a medium heat and add 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Sweat the chopped onion and add the garlic slices and leeks. Cook for 5 minutes stirring continuously. Add the contents of the cannellini bean tin, vegetable stock and bay leaf. If using stock powder, add 100ml water, stir, bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover and cook until the leeks are soft. Add the spinach leaves, stir and season.
In a bowl, mix the spice paste with the lemon juice, lemon zest and 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, add the crumbs and stir to mix thoroughly.
To cook the fish, preheat the oven to 180C fan.
Pat dry the fillets and season with salt and pepper. Bring an oven proof pan to a medium heat, add 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and when the oil is hot, add the fillets skin side down. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 3 minutes. Spoon the spiced crumbs over the fish filets, sprinkle with some grated goats cheese and transfer the pan to the oven. Cook for 12-15 minutes depending on thickness of fillets.
To serve, spoon some of the cannellini beans onto a plate and top with a fish fillet. Sprinkle with more grated goats cheese and serve.