Blending the best of fruit juices, garlic, herbs and spices, this recipe adds a whole other realm to fish, and will instantly transport you into dreams of tropical holidays and lazy days on balmy beaches.

A hot fruity vinaigrette is a perfect partner for steamed or grilled fish. Serve in a basket with some other dips and a chilled frascati for a gloriously casual brunch
In my experience, even when served with the most delectable seasonal ingredients, fish can be somewhat bland. Whether your fish is served steamed and chilled with dips, as above, or stuffed and baked until golden brown with crispy edges, the addition of this sauce to your fish will turn a modest dish into an acclaimed feast.
When making this for the first time, I thought it would go down well, but had no idea how greedy my guests would be for it. I made three times the amount listed here, thinking we would have some left for the coming days, but how wrong was I? It was all gobbled up by our enthusiastic friends in a single sitting. For this reason I do advise you to make lots of it. You have been warned! The quantity mentioned here will provide a good drizzle for four sizeable fish, but I usually make at least twice this because I invariably find my guests wanting more.
I've always been a lover of diversity and lateral thinking, so perhaps the best thing about this recipe is the endless possibilities you have for varying it. I encourage you to use other fruit and spice combinations, and to experiment with wine and other forms of alcohol to create different cultural flavour sensations.
I've made successful versions of this with rhubarb and plums, and I can imagine a rich version of this with raisins and Pineau on mackerel would work beautifully, as would Campari and oranges on stuffed crab, for example. Refer to the culinary notes at the foot of the recipe for further ideas and let me know how your own turn out. To make this recipe with shellfish, simply serve the vinaigrette in a basket with steamed, grilled or baked fish. This particular recipe features hot gooseberry vinaigrette drizzled over stuffed dorade.
Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 15 mins
Ingredients
1 large chopped red onion,
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1 large pat of butter
1/4 litre of white wine
1/4 litre of peach or orange juice
juice and rind of 2 lemons
a squirt of lime juice
1 tin of gooseberries in juice (not syrup), strained
pink himalayan salt, chilli flakes, pink peppercorns, oregano, lemon thyme and parsley. balsamic or white wine vinegar to taste (optional)
marmalade and muscovado sugar to taste
Method
1-Soften and lightly brown the onions and crushed garlic in the butter.
2-Add the white wine and fruit juices, stir and simmer gently for a few minutes to allow the mixture to blend.
3-Add the strained tinned fruit and seasonings, and simmer again. Stir this very gently so that the fruit warms through without disintegrating.
4-Add the vinegar, marmalade and brown sugar to taste.
5-Serve this as a hot dip with steamed shellfish in baskets, or drizzle over stuffed fish - dorade, bream, whitebass, red mullet are especially good. It works as an accompaniment with any grilled or barbequed fish. When serving it as a dip, I would serve bread and butter and a basket of slaw. Brown rice and salad are perfection with baked stuffed fish.
Below is the recipe for baked stuffed fish - this time using dorade, one of our favourites. I make this several times each summer, usually with a peach and lemon vinaigrette, whereby I add several peach slices to the stuffing mix too. Experimenting is the name of the game!
To stuff dorade
4 dorade
4 slices of fresh brown bread
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1 large onion
juice and rind of two lemons
2 peach slices (optional)
1 egg
pink Himalayan salt, chilli flakes, oregano, lemon thyme, parsley
olive oil and butter
Method
1-Break up the bread into small crumbs, and mix together with all the other ingredients, except the butter. Squeeze the mixture through your fingers a few times to make sure it becomes nice and sticky.
2-Spread the butter onto a deep baking dish and drizzle with some olive oil.
3-Scatter some salt, chilli flakes, green herbs over the buttered base of the dish and drizzle with some lemon juice.
4-Stuff each fish with the fruity breaded mixture and lay the fish into the baking dish.
5-Dot with more butter (optiona), drizzle with more lemon juice, and scatter more of the seasonings on the fish.
6-Bake the fish in a pre-heated oven at 200C until golden and sizzling.
7-Serve with the piping hot sauce in a large gravy boat with a generous ladel and let your guests serve themselves. Frascati is superb with this, but a smooth Sauvignon will also be formidable.
Notes
1-The flavour of this is complex: tropically aromatic, warming, sweet and sour, herbal, quintessentially summery and with a little kick from the spices. Happy dreams.
2-I do not recommend breadcrumbs for this recipe - they are too dry and granular. When adding the lemon juice to the fresh bread crumbs, this creates just the right stickiness to be able to stuff the fish properly and for the mixture to retain its shape inside the fish, without collapsing and falling out when you serve it.
3-You can vary the fruit you use in this to make ever knew versions of this hearty sauce: consider raisins and Pineau; plums and rosé; apricots and sauterne; sangria or campari with oranges; or peaches, lemons and limoncello....
4-Similarly, the sauce does not have to be made with alcohol. You can use a combination of half stock and fruit juice, or pure fruit juice, or even grape juice and cream, for example. When making your choice, I urge you to run with the appetites and preferences of your guests.
5-Herbs and spices can also make a difference. I recently acquired some fresh jamaican allspice berries - a single one of these produces a staggeringly good hit of aromatic warmth, and so I plan to try this on mackerel or trout. The message is to experiment to your heart's delight, and please do let me know how you get on.
6-This dish looks marvellous when served directly to table. Lay the fish diagonally in a baking dish, and scatter with fresh herbs before serving. Note that putting fresh herbs on the fish before baking will cause them to burn and turn to paper, so always put them under or inside the fish for the baking process, and add fresh herbs just before serving.
7-Garnishes can also create a new look, feel and taste to the dish. Caviar or pink roe would look wonderful on mackerel or salmon with a lemon and peach vinaigrette; chopped green herb butter would melt beautifully on roasted fish, and a drizzle of hot honey with chilli flakes would make the fish glisten as it arrives at the table.
8-Place a shallow oven dish with some water in the base of the oven to keep the fish moist while it bakes. This is a great tip for any baking!
***** bon appetit *****
Comments