14 March 2011

In an historic canalside setting just off Deansgate, The Mark Addy’s executive head chef Robert Owen Brown serves a menu of British classics, as well as daily specials created using local produce. A choice of four real ales is available, including beers from local micro-breweries, together with an extensive wine list designed to complement the kitchen’s exacting standards. This is his imaginative recipe for grey mullet, a delicious under used and sustainable fish, served with a claret soup.

Grey Mullet with Claret Soup

Ingredients

4 grey mullet fillets
1 onion, roughly diced
1 carrot, roughly diced
1 bay leaf
1 leek, roughly diced
6 large potatoes
Half a bottle of red wine
Pinch of salt and pepper
1 liquorice stick
50g caster sugar
1 tsp olive oil
25g plain flour
100ml fish stock

Method

Sweat the carrot, leek, bay leaf, onion and liquorice stick. Add the red wine and sugar. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 25 minutes. Add fish stock and simmer for a further five minutes. Strain and set aside the liquor, to keep hot. Lightly flour the mullet and seal in a hot pan. Top the mullet using slices of the potato in a scale type pattern. Bake in a hot oven for five minutes. Arrange the fish in the centre of each plate surrounded by a generous swirl of the liquor.

Grey Mullet is at its best during the winter months, its distinctive earthy flavour works well with robust sauces such as this one. Its flesh is quite firm with a pinky tinge but this turns pure white when cooked correctly. Lack of demand makes this fish great value for money. Buy fillets that have been pin boned weighing in at around 250g each. To prepare the potato “scalesâ€? for the dish take an apple corer and carefully remove sections of the potatoes, large ones make this easier, until, when thinly sliced, you have enough “scalesâ€? to cover all four of the fillets.

Liquorice stick may be a new ingredient to some of you. Widely available in the 60s and 70s when it was also known as Spanish root, it has been making a comeback recently and can often be found in independent chemists, retro sweet shops and larger branches of national health food outlets. Using poor quality wine for cooking purposes is false economy so, for this recipe, choose a red wine that you would be happy to drink yourself; one with a fair amount of body would be best.

The Mark Addy, Stanley Street M3 5EJ. Tel: 0161 832 4080