Recipe: Hake and soft tomatoes with chilli butter
Recipe for hake and soft tomatoes with chilli butter from The Art of Friday Night Dinner by Eleanor Steafel
On their own, these tomatoes make for an oddly elegant dinner, but with the fish and the chilli butter they become something really special. Cook it all for one, or up the recipe for the tomatoes and make a batch so that you can then blitz the leftovers for a sweet, fresh pasta sauce or to spread on bread with anchovies for pan con tomate.
Serves 1
For the tomatoes
- Olive oil, for frying
- 290g plum tomatoes, quartered
- ½tsp flaky salt, plus extra to season and finish
- 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
- A splash of red wine vinegar
For the fish
- A chunky hake steak, skin on
- 35g butter
- 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
- ½ small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- A pinch of smoked paprika
- Thick slices of good bread
- A few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, roughly torn
- A few big basil leaves
- Flaky salt
- A lemon wedge, to serve (optional)
Heat a good glug of olive oil in a small frying pan or casserole pan with a lid over a very low heat.
If you can, pick a pan that is going to be able to fit the tomato wedges in a single, snug layer over the bottom. Arrange the tomato quarters in concentric circles.
Sprinkle over the salt and garlic. Put the lidon and leave the tomatoes to cook for 30 minutes – don't move the pan too much, just leave the tomatoes to cook slowly, until they release lots of sweet juices and slump a little. Shake over a little vinegar (don't stir the tomatoes when you do), smush the tomatoes a little with the back of a spoon, put the lid back on and cook for another 5 minutes, so the tomatoes return to a simmer.
Meanwhile, sprinkle the hake with salt. Set a small frying pan over a medium heat. Add a splash of olive oil and, when hot, fry the fish, skin side down for 3 minutes so the skin crisps up and the flesh starts to cook. Then, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the fish to the tomatoes, lowering it into the pan so the skin stays above the liquid and the flesh can continue cooking in the simmering juices. Cook for 3 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan with the sliced garlic, the chopped chilli and the paprika, plus a pinch of salt. Let it foam up and cook for a minute, swirling the pan as it does. Set the flavoured butter aside in the pan.
Toast the bread (either in a toaster or in a griddle pan if you want more of a char), then drizzle it with oil and sprinkle it with flaky salt.
Finish the tomatoes and fish with the chilli butter and herbs. Serve with a wedge of lemon, if you wish.
Recipe from The Art of Friday Night Dinner By Eleanor Steafel (Bloomsbury Publishing, £26)
