Baked hake with green sauce and fennel salad
Pan-fried hake with a crunchy topping, served with a zingy green sauce. A perfect supper for friends!
Ingredients
- 165g/6oz unsalted butter
- 265g/9oz panko or sourdough breadcrumbs
- 2 tsp sea salt
- glug of olive oil
- 4 x 150g/5½oz–200g/7oz hake fillet, skin-on, pin-boned
For the green sauce
- 1 bunch flatleaf parsley
- ½ bunch fresh tarragon
- 4–6 anchovy fillets
- 1 tbsp small capers
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 unwaxed lemon, finely grated zest only
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4–6 tbsp olive oil
For the apple and fennel salad
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 orange, finely grated zest and juice
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced on a mandolin
- 2 green apples, cored, sliced and cut into matchsticks
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Melt the butter in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium–high heat until it starts to turn brown. Add the breadcrumbs and salt and cook until golden brown. Tip the mixture onto a plate and leave to cool. Wipe out the pan.
Heat the oil in the frying pan over a medium–high heat. Add the hake and cook for 2–3 minutes. Turn the fish over and top with the breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to the oven and bake for 4 minutes, or until cooked through.
Meanwhile, for the green sauce, blend together the parsley, tarragon, anchovies, capers and garlic in a food processor. Add the mustard, lemon zest and vinegar, then with the engine running pour in the oil until you have a smooth sauce.
For the salad, make a vinaigrette by mixing together the garlic, orange zest and juice, vinegar, mustard and oil in a small bowl. Put the fennel, apple and dill in large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette.
Serve the fish with the green sauce and the salad alongside.
