5 Delicious Fish Recipes With Gordon Ramsay

Fingers with a delicious chip butty. The secret of a good chip butty is in the potato. Now these are Desiree potatoes. One of my first ever jobs was working in a chip shop. I used to put sacks and sacks of potatoes into the rumbler which was then the potato peeler all day long. Today I'm gonna do something a bit healthier. For my oven chips with a twist simply peel, slice and blanch for three to four minutes. Drain, season and cover well with paprika. Spread evenly over an oiled baking tray and place into a preheated oven for 20 minutes. Simple as that. Next up, easy fish fingers. This is Pollock. A really nice firm delicious fish. Cut the fish in finger size patterns of fish. Put them onto your plate and just lightly salt them. You can do that literally 20 minutes, 30 minutes before you start cooking the fish. It firms the fish up beautifully and it allows it to become a little more durable especially in the pan. Now for the coating. Start by thoroughly coating the fish in seasoned flour and then just roll it to get rid of those little sharp corners because then it stops those corners almost burning in the pan. In to your egg wash and really coat them. Wonderful. And then this is dill. Goes brilliantly well with the fish and run the dill through my breadcrumbs. That makes it more aromatic. Lay them onto your breadcrumbs. Nothing wrong with the chip butty, nothing wrong with fish fingers. Just give it a lovely modern twist. Beautiful. Once the fish fingers are thoroughly coated, they're ready to pan fry and they'll need around three minutes on each side. I want the fish fingers to be nice and crispy. Get a really nice colour on them first and then we'll flip them over and finish them with butter. Bring the heat up into the pan. A nice little knob of butter. That'll work wonders with the breadcrumbs and the dill. Nice and carefully take them out. They look and smell incredible. Stay nice and crispy. Now to assemble my chip butty, starting with buttered thick crusty bread. Get your slice of bread. Mop up that amazing flavour. On. Slice in half. Never slice in an angle. My mouth is salivating. Beautiful. On with the chip butty. There's one thing missing and it signifies that I've never forgotten the joy of comfort food. But my god, that makes me feel like a nine-year-old. Now excuse me for a moment. I want to stuff my face. Homemade fish fingers are my ultimate chip butty. So simple to make but trust me, it tastes amazing. Cooking is about being adventurous and having the confidence to go off piste and being a little bit more daring. So when you start combining peanuts, chilli flakes and this amazing fish, red mullet, trust me you're in for an amazing treat. We're gonna make a really nice light sweet chilli sauce. First off, your chilli. Off with the top in half. And those seeds inside are very powerful. Incredibly hot but full of flavour. Garlic. Two cloves of garlic. Slice the garlic nice and thin so it helps to puree the chillies in the pestle and mortar. Garlic in. A touch of salt. A little touch of sugar in. And then start grinding. Push down first. The salt and the sugar really helps to puree the chilli and the garlic. Fish sauce. Always a base to a chilli sauce. Two tablespoons in. And a touch of rice wine vinegar. Fish sauce gives it the saltiness. The vinegar gives it a nice acidic wake up. Three tablespoons of olive oil. Nice. Mix that up. Beautiful. Look at it, the colours. Incredible. Now spring onions. I want the texture and the crunch. Spring onions in. The coriander. Slice it once. In. Fresh lime. And that goes brilliantly with the red mullet. Just really wakes up the chilli, the garlic and reminds the sauce that we're serving with fish. Now taste. Wow. It's delicious. Look at that. Beautiful. The longer that chilli sauce sits there the better it gets. Now for the peanuts and chilli that's gonna coat the top of the red mullet. Peanuts in. Salt in. It helps to really grind the peanuts down. Some beautiful dried chilli flakes. Creates a nice sort of warm heat. I'm using fresh chilli for the sauce but dried chilli flakes for the coating which will really crunch up when cooking. Just a little bit of the coriander. Mix the coriander in to the peanuts. And look, I like them quite textured. I don't want them too small as a powder otherwise they'll burn but crushed lightly. To coat the fish with the chilli and peanut seasoning in a separate bowl beat two eggs along with a splash of fish sauce. Take your fillet. Lay in your red mullet. Dip it in. Shake up your peanuts. And then in. Now make sure you push that down. Cover that red mullet. Look, beautiful. Now make sure that pan's really nice and piping hot. If you put the fish in and the pan's cold all those wonderful peanuts and chilli is just going to slide off the fish so we need to sear it in and get it nice and crisp. In and lay away from you. Beautiful. If the pan starts getting a little bit too hot just get your olive oil and just place another teaspoon of olive oil around the outside so it starts to heat up as it hits the centre and it really helps to stay so much more in control. And turn. Nice and gently. You want that nice sort of toasted sautéed crispness which adds a really lovely flavour. Tilt the pan and just baste the top of the red mullet with that really nice piping hot olive oil. You've got that really nice roasted crunch and it goes brilliantly with that soft sweetness of that fish inside. Gas off and just leave them sitting in there and finish with lime and just go over each one. Now we'll take them out. In the sauce a touch on the bottom and the tail of each fish. Now to round that off, serving some fragrant rice, sautéed broccoli. Amazing. And there you have a delicious peanut encrusted red mullet with a wonderful sweet chilli sauce. Cooking with chillies isn't all about blow your head off heat. This dish uses the exciting taste of a chilli but has a deliciously elegant and subtle flavour. You know that feeling when you really want a particular dish and nothing else will do? That's comfort food. My ultimate comforting lunch has to be fish with peas. I've loved it ever since I was a kid and to make it even more delicious I've given it a few modern tweaks. For my ultimate fish I'm doing the best crunchiest lightest batter imaginable with a hint of ginger. To go with it chilli minted mushy peas. In order to make sure that the batter stays nice and crispy and the fish stays nice and firm, the secret is to season the fish. Salt and pepper. That will draw out the moisture and that'll keep the fish really nice and firm. Put it in the fridge for around 10 minutes to let the seasoning work its magic. Now the batter. As always when making any batter always sieve the flour. I want a bit of heat in the batter so a nice teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Season the flour, salt and pepper. And then two teaspoons of baking powder. This almost lightens the load of the batter. Now ginger beer. It gives that batter the sort of unique spicy individual flavour. It's delicious with the fish and a nice tablespoon of oil. Just basic vegetable oil gives it a nice sheen. Give that a good mix. You really want it almost like the consistency of double cream. Too thin and the batter runs off especially when it hits the fryer. Too thick and it actually prevents the fish from getting cooked so you've got to get it to that just that sort of double cream texture. Let it rest for as long as possible to give you an even textured batter. Now the season should have worked its magic and drawn out the excess moisture from the fish so it's on to the next stage. Fish has gone slightly firmer. Perfect for frying. Start by coating the fish in flour seasoned with pepper. Pat that nice and dry into your hands so you haven't got any excess flour. The flour stops the batter from running off the fish. I'm just going to check to see if my oil's ready by putting a little touch of batter into the fryer. You see it bubbling straight to the very top. That tells you that the oil is ready. Never really ever fill the pan above halfway. If the oil starts to get too hot first thing you do turn off the gas. Second thing add some oil into it to cool it down. Hold the fish by the corner unless you put it in and roll it round. Then gently slap the fish on the sides of the bowl to get rid of excess batter. Now in and lay away and just gently drop it in. Twist your pan. That stops it from sticking at the bottom. Oil should be gently sort of bubbling away. But notice as we're frying the fish there's no spitting of any water from the fish. Fry the fish for three to five minutes gently turning halfway through. Once the batter's golden and crisp it's ready. Look they look stunning. It's like these big crispy pillows of beautifully textured cod. Leave the fish to rest on a kitchen towel to blot excess oil. Meanwhile it's quick and Now the mushy peas. A little teaspoon of olive oil and a nice knob of butter into the pan. Shallot finely chopped. That adds a bit of sweetness to the peas. Shallots into the pan. Chili. Peas are delicious. When you eat peas and they're slightly spicy they're even better. Garlic. In the peas. Sweat off the chili, the garlic and the shallots. Before the peas join those spices simply blanch in salted boiling water. Infuse with their perfect partner. Fresh mint. Stalks on all. And then put your frozen peas in. Now once the peas have gone nice and soft drain them. Now take off the stalks and then add your peas to the shallots. I love that sound. Mix all that chili and garlic in there. A little seasoning. Finishing the frozen peas off like this. Absolutely delicious. Onto your board. Crush. Now you cannot beat crushed delicious peas. Look at that. Those peas is incredible. Top with chopped mint. Chili minted mushy peas so simple and perfect with easy ginger beer battered fish. A nice spicy crispy batter and that just reaffirms the importance of comfort food. If you're going to do it, do it properly. My spicy twist is proof you can update a comforting classic. Lemon salt. For me one of the most flavorsome flat fish. Twice as much flavor as the Dover Salt and more importantly half the price. Skin side down. Skin. Just nip at the end. Grab it like you're sort of almost pulling hair and let the knife do the work. Season. Dill. Dill and fish go brilliantly because it's got that really nice sort of fennel flavor that sort of aniseed flavor and just roll almost like a sausage. Leaves. Carrots. Spring onions. Garlic. It's a very delicate dainty fish this so we don't want to overpower with garlic. And then something to sort of wake them up a little bit. Thyme. Rosemary. The thyme goes brilliant with the leeks and the rosemary goes fantastic with the carrots. Baking paper. If I had to put them on my board like that then they're going to curl up. So I turn the paper almost inside out. Add veg. We're looking for a bed like a nest of vegetables. Season. And then just drizzle generously with olive oil. It looks delicious now it's not even cooked. Take a piece of paper that goes over the top. Wrap. You get the top right hand corner and you just fold that over and then over again. Fold and push and just follow it around. Fold and push. We've left almost like a little snout. White wine. What the wine does as that salt is steaming there it makes a really nice aroma with the vegetable the olive oil and keeps everything really nice and light and fruity. Seal. Pan on there and push down and look just seals the paper. Hot oven 20 minutes. And this is the bit of magic. In and just look and look at that absolutely delicious and the perfume of the herbs extraordinary. Salt-crusted sea bream served with braised leeks and hazelnuts. First job is that salt crust. This dish looks intimidating but it is actually very straightforward and very easy. Make sure the guts are out and the fish is clean. The most important thing is always leaving the skin and the scales on. That skin protects the actual flesh from becoming salty. Give the fish a really nice seasoning inside. Even though we're putting a salt crust on the outside it's still very important to season the middle. Fennel seeds goes brilliantly well with fish. And then slice the lemon. Nice large thick slices. The zest and the lemon bakes inside the fish. Fold over the fish and just squeeze the juice. Now for the salt. About 150 ml to 200 ml of water. What you're trying to do now is just bring the salt together and you want to sort of end up with a bowl of salt that looks almost like snow. You'll need about two kilos of salt for this and it doesn't need to be fancy stuff. Even though you're using a lot of it, it won't make the fish salty. Instead the crust forms a kiln that retains moisture. Now basically a nice bed of salt underneath. Flatten it down. Lay the fish on top of the salt. Get your salt and just start packing. You can salt crust almost any fish from sea bass to salmon or flatfish like sole but it's not great with oily fish. Now it looks like a ridiculous amount of salt but it's really important to cover all the fish because you want that nice shell and the minute salt hits the oven it sort of tightens up and forms this large crust that goes in at 180 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Whilst the fish cooks is on my beautiful braised leeks. Splash of olive oil. Leek is a very sort of firm robust vegetable so it can take a really nice sear. The most exciting thing about these leeks, a they go beautifully with the sea bream but braised leeks, coloured properly with a lot of flavour on there, taste absolutely delicious. Take a couple of cloves of garlic and just crush them in with the leeks. Some fresh thyme. Get some butter in there. Braising them in butter and white wine gives them the most amazing flavour. Braising is a cheffy term for searing at a high temperature then cooking with a bit of liquid. Bring that up to the boil and then the rest of your butter. Now as the white wine reduces down the flavour of the leeks intensify and they glaze. Turn it down. Just leave that little gap there. If we totally covered it then you're gonna get all that condensation from beneath the lid and it'll just make the leeks watery. The leeks will take about 12 minutes to cook so now for the garnish. Roasted hazelnuts. They'll be roasted in the oven. Very brittle, very firm. So get them inside pestle and mortar. Put a seasoning and just crush your nuts. Don't over pound them. I just want this nice sort of rustic chopped toasted hazelnuts. Now get your knife. You want that going through with ease and turn off the gas. I absolutely adore them. Like stunning little parcels. Soft and slightly creamy. Now baste the leeks with the remaining butter. Spread your fat leaf parsley over generously and then just sprinkle the toasted hazelnuts. The combination of that earthiness from the leeks, the roasted flavour from the hazelnuts, that is a stunning way of eating leeks. And now for the fish. And look now you just gently tap the top and it starts falling away. You can just see that beautiful shine. Carefully lift off your salt. Now peel that skin. Look how juicy and succulent that seaweed is. Stays incredibly moist. The other great thing about cooking whole fish like this, it makes it so easy to fillet. Take your spoon, run that down through the top. The fish will just slide off. Now just push back that lovely fillet and look that is cooked beautifully. That's what keeps them coming back for more and more and more. When you have friends over you want to keep lunch relaxed. Lay back but impressive and a salt crust brine with beautiful braised leeks is just that.