WHITEBAIT SEASON

It’s a small window of opportunity — make the most of it.

It’s whitebait season so I felt it only fitting to champion the little critters and share a couple of my favourite ways to serve them. I often do the whitebait rolls in the restaurant and they are always a winner, with diners returning for more. I also want to share my fish soup recipe, it’s an oldie but certainly a goodie.

Whitebait rolls

As is the case with whitebait, this recipe is really dependent on how much you can catch or afford as it does get quite pricey. Serves: varies

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

White sandwich bread (crusts removed)

Softened butter

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 250 g whitebait (or as much as you can catch)

¼ cup flour

Pink sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper

Bunch of freshly chopped parsley

1 Butter the bread and set aside. 2 Toss the whitebait in flour.

3 Heat a fry pan and add the olive oil. 4 Quickly fry the whitebait and divide over the bread.

5 Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle over the parsley.

6 Roll the bread up encasing the whitebait and eat quickly. Enjoy.

Simon’s fish soup

This is from an old book of mine Simon

Cooks, I think it’s really good and thought it was time to bring it out again. Top tip is that the soup base can be made in advance and will keep in the fridge for three days.

Serves: 6

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 20 mins

FOR THE SOUP BASE

50ml extra-virgin olive oil 1 onion, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 2 fennel bulbs, thinly sliced 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced 1 leek, thinly sliced

5 carrots, thinly sliced

250g tomato paste

1.3 litres of fish stock 200ml white wine 50ml dry vermouth

330g hot-smoked salmon 1 small bunch of fennel leaves, roughly chopped (or 1 Tbsp chopped parsley) 500ml cream

50ml Pernod

WHITEBAIT (optional) 1 ½ Tbsp flour 100g whitebait 150ml canola oil

ASSEMBLY

12 scallops, cut in half 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 12 prawns, uncooked

1 Heat the olive oil in a saucepan until shimmering. 2 Add the onion and garlic, saute till transparent. Add the fennel, celery, leeks and carrots and saute for 3 minutes.

3 Add the tomato paste and cook, stirring continuously on a medium heat for 4 minutes.

4 Add the fish stock, white wine and vermouth, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

5 Place in a blender along with the smoked salmon and blend until smooth.

6 Return to the saucepan and bring back to a simmer. Add the fennel

(or parsley), cream and Pernod and simmer for a further 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

7 For the whitebait, place the flour in a plastic bag and add the whitebait. Seal the bag and shake for 30 seconds until the whitebait is covered in flour. Remove from the bag, discarding any excess flour.

8 Heat the canola oil in a fry pan until shimmering.

9 Add the floured whitebait to the oil for 5 seconds, then drain the whitebait in a sieve.

10 To assemble the soup, reheat the soup base for 2 minutes. Add the scallops, remove the soup from the heat and let it stand for a minute while the scallops cook in the soup.

11 In a fry pan, heat the olive oil and saute the prawns for 3 minutes.

12 Ladle the soup into the bowls, placing 2 prawns on top of each bowl. 13 Divide the whitebait between the bowls and serve.