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Yesterday I got back my cooking mojo after being immersed in work stuff for a while. A trip to the fishmonger yielded some fillets of John Dory, a fish I had neither cooked nor eaten before. Back home, and a trawl through the recipe books yielded lots of ideas of cooking it with olives/capers/tomatoes etc. No offence to our Mediterranean members, but none floated the boat. Almost out of ideas, I happened upon a small unassuming old paperback, yellowing pages and not a picture in sight, called "English Seafood Cookery". Inside I found a delightfully simple recipe "John Dory with Basil and Montbazillac". Tesco being out of Montbazillac (their selection of French wine is truly appalling these days) I settled for a Cotes be Bordeaux, but any sweet, fruity white wine would have done.
Basically, the fish is simply coated in seasoned flour, then pan fried in foaming butter, 2 mins skin side down, flip, and another 1 min on the other side. The star is the sauce - equal quantities of wine and good fish stock, reduced by three quarters. Add double cream and reduce by another half. Add fresh basil - I used Greek, which worked really well. At this point I deviated from the recipe by adding two teaspoons of Dijon mustard - I felt it needed it. Served on a bed of steamed leeks, with new potatoes and steamed samphire. It was rather good.
) - durian, rambutan, long kong, sticky rice, watermelon, mangosteen, onions, cucumber, etc., etc. The list is endless (when they are in season).
