Phil Vickery's show-stopping roast turbot
If you’re hoping to impress someone special, Phil Vickery’s in the kitchen with a truly show-stopping dish.
He’ll be serving his roast turbot with homemade hollandaise sauce.
Roasted turbot
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 x 350g pieces of turbot, skin on, bone-in, but winged
50ml any oil
50g unsalted butter
Salt
Ground pepper
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220C gas 7.
2. Heat 1 large or 2 medium-sized oven proof pans.
3. Pat each piece with a kitchen towel and season the turbot steaks well with salt and pepper just before you cook them.
4. Add the oil and butter to the pan and heat until foaming and just starting to turn golden. Add the turbot dark skin down in the hot butter and oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes to get a little colour, then pop in the oven and cook for 10 minutes, roughly.
5. If you have a cooking thermometer cook until the internal temperature reaches 48C, carefully turn all the pieces of fish over and leave dark side skin up.
6. Cover with foil and leave for the same amount of time you cooked the fish for.
7. If you have no thermometer then cook, to test slightly squeeze the fish and it should still be springy and feel like a firm jelly, but just give a little.
8. Next make the hollandaise, see the recipe below.
9. When ready to serve, lift off the foil (the fish will be at a perfect temperature).
10. Using a forklift away the dark skin, it will come away easily, then remove any small bones from the edge of the fish, these will pull away easily and discard.Serve the fish on the bone and spoon over the chive hollandaise.
Chive hollandaise
Serves 4
Ingredients
4-6 tbsp white wine vinegar
A few crushed white peppercorns
2 shallots, peeled and sliced finely
100ml cold water
A few celery leaves
4 large egg yolks at room temperature
150g hot melted, unsalted butter approx
A squeeze of lemon juice
4-6 tbsp very finely chopped chives
Method
1. Place the vinegar, water, shallot, celery and peppercorns into a saucepan and bring to a boil and reduce by 2/3rds.
2. Start whisking the egg yolks and strain on the hot vinegar mixture, whisk quickly over a pan of simmering water until very thick and foamy. This is really important.
3. Once cooked and thick gradually add the melted, hot butter until light and fluffy.Season well with salt and lemon juice, add the chives just before serving to keep their colour and flavour.
4. Keep warm but not hot.