Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Masters Of Modern Cookery: Doing It The Stein Way

11: Rick Stein. A monthly series in which our leading cooks share their inspirations, ideas and secrets with Michael Bateman

Michael Bateman
Sunday 03 January 1999 01:02 GMT
Comments

Born in Oxford in 1951, Rick Stein went to school at Uppingham and read English at New College, Oxford. He became a hotel trainee before moving to Padstow, Cornwall, to open a disco with his wife Jill. A self-taught cook, he slowly built up his S eafood Restaurant, winning recognition in the Egon Ronay guide in 1978. Books and an acclaimed television series followed. His most recent accolade has been an English Tourist Board award for services to tourism

THERE IS ONE thing that cookery books don't tell you: how to cook fish to perfection. And fish is very unforgiving: underdone, it is shockingly raw; overdone, it is dry and unappetising. Being a particularly concentrated form of protein, like egg-white, it reaches a point of no return very suddenly.

Rick Stein, the owner and chef of the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, has been cooking fish for more than 20 years. It is a revelation to watch him at the stove. He may be simultaneously cooking dishes for five separate tables: grilling a whole sea bass, deep-frying whitebait; poaching a monkfish tail; roasting a stuffed mackerel; steaming a dish of mussels and clams.

All his senses are alert. His nose wrinkles to the curling aromas. His ears take in the crackle of fish in the deep-fryer. His eyes evaluate the changing colours. And his fingers press the flesh of the fish to estimate the extent to which it is done. Completely soft, and he knows it is still raw. Hard as cardboard and it's overcooked. Springy, and it is ready.

Getting it right is important enough to the home cook, but as a professional this is the critical point where you stand or fall. Most customers (especially those paying steep prices) will be affronted if presented with fish even slightly underdone. And they will be justifiably outraged if it's overcooked.

So is experience enough to gauge perfection in fish? Rick thinks not. As each piece of fish reaches near perfection, he reaches for his electronic temperature probe. He thrusts it into the thickest part of the fish and takes a reading.

When it rises to an internal temperature of 52C (123F), it is done. And that's all there is to it: something the cookery books never tell you. Buying a probe is surely a small investment to ensure you never spoil fish again.

And while we're at Rick's side, another thing. As it may be some minutes before the fish reaches the customer at the table, Rick stops the cooking at 43C (110F), because the fish goes on cooking internally, reaching 52C around five minutes later.

Rick Stein is Britain's most influential fish cook by far. Admired by food critics for several decades, he suddenly emerged from the comparative obscurity of his trendy Cornish fishing village three years ago. He took the country by storm with two television series which ran up record viewing figures. His third series, about fish dishes sourced around the world, begins on BBC2 this week.

Rick says he has assumed his lofty status by default, there being no others who speak up for British fish. He never ceases to marvel how, as a nation, we fail to exploit our rich fish resources. After fish and chips, you'd be hard pressed to put a name to a national dish. Fish pie? Potted shrimps? France has thousands of classic and local fish dishes. And in Italy and Spain, fish is highly sought-after, often commanding higher prices than meat.

All around British coasts, he says, our European neighbours hover, waiting to buy up our prime catches at prime prices. Hake, eel, octopus, lobsters, crab, every sort of shellfish and mollusc.

Rick's recent filming was a climax to his lifelong passion for travel. When he left school he took two years out to go Australia and New Zealand, the US and Mexico. These experiences stood him in good stead when he later decided to reach out beyond the narrow confines of British fish- cooking. Now, 30 years on, he continues to travel afar on winter holidays with his wife Jill and three sons; to Goa, Thailand, the US and Australia.

His menu in Padstow has expanded accordingly. Stein was heavily informed by France in the early days and his menu still reflects the formative influences of such classics as Marmite dieppoise and bouillabaisse (fish stews) and shellfish dishes such as mouclade (a curry-flavoured mussel dish).

Gradually, Rick embraced other themes. He's always loved the French plat de fruits de mer, a heaped platter of freshly- cooked and raw shellfish, lobster, crab, langoustines, oysters, clams, whelks, winkles. Inspired by a meal in Venice, a bowl of steaming hot shellfish in a sharp oily dressing, he has created a hot version, adding Thai flavours, flecks of red chilli, green leaves of coriander.

Goa was the inspiration for his clams masala dish, using flavoursome local carpet clams spiked with hot spices. And for Indian baked fish, Rick uses fresh local mackerel stuffed with curry paste.

Rick never planned to be a cook at all. After graduating in English he decided to open a disco and headed for Padstow, a Cornish seaside town where his father had taken him with his brother (now an Oxford don) for their summer holidays.

Rick acquired a disused quayside granary and converted it. But at 25, he was no match for the local fishermen who, topped up with scrumpy, would hold regular brawls. Struggling to break up fights, Rick was twice taken to hospital.

Magistrates relieved him of his liquor licence. Stuck with a now-redundant property, he started a fish and chip bar to recoup some of his investment. Over the years, it grew into the Seafood Restaurant.

In 1988 Rick wrote his first book, English Seafood Cookery, which became an instant classic. The new book accompanying his series, Rick Stein's Seafood Odyssey (BBC, pounds 18.99), seems set to become another best-seller, and is less a spin-off from a TV series than a primer for the world's best fish dishes. Here are three of them: a snapper dish from South Carolina, an Italian Risotto Nero, and English fish pie.

Chargrilled Snapper With A Mango, Prawn & Chilli Salsa

I'm not a great fan of fruit with meat or fish, but if you can find an almost ripe mango that has plenty of acidity, it combines really well with the avocado, chilli, spring onions and coriander and creates a powerful combination of flavours.

Serves 4

4 x 100g/4oz fillets of unskinned snapper or red mullet

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

coriander sprigs, to garnish

For the salsa:

2 large red finger chillies

100g/4oz peeled cooked tiger prawns, thickly sliced

4 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 small garlic clove, finely chopped

1 ripe but firm avocado, peeled and cut into small dice

12 ripe but firm mango, peeled and cut into small dice

juice of 1 lime

You can cook this dish over a chargrill, barbecue or under a conventional grill. Pre-heat to high whichever you are using. Meanwhile, for the salsa, cut the chillies in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a small knife, leaving the ribs behind to give the salsa a bit more heat. Cut them across into thin slices, then mix all the ingredients together.

Brush the fillets on both sides with olive oil and season well. Cut each into three, slightly on the diagonal; it will look more elegant like this. Carefully slide a palette knife under each fillet and place either skin-side down over the chargrill or barbecue, or skin-side up on an oiled baking sheet to go under the grill. Cook for three to four minutes.

To serve, spoon the salsa on to four plates and arrange the strips of fish on top. Drizzle a little oil round the edge and garnish with coriander. Alternative fish: sea bass, bream, John Dory, grey mullet.

Fish Pie

This is as simple a recipe for fish pie as you can imagine, but if the fish is good there is no better fish dish in the world than an English fish pie.

Serves 4

1 small onion, thickly sliced

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

600ml/1 pint milk

300ml/10fl oz double cream

450g/1lb unskinned cod fillet

225g/8oz undyed smoked cod fillet

4 eggs

100g/4oz butter

45g/134oz plain flour

5 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1.25kg/2lb 8oz peeled floury potatoes such as Maris Piper or King Edward

1 egg yolk

freshly grated nutmeg, salt and freshly ground white pepper

Stud a couple of the onion slices with the cloves. Put the onion slices in a large pan with the bay leaf, 450ml (15fl oz) of the milk, the cream, cod and smoked cod. Bring just to the boil and simmer for eight minutes. Lift the fish out on to a plate and strain the cooking liquor into a jug. When the fish is cool enough to handle, break it into large flakes, discarding the skin and bones. Sprinkle over the base of a shallow 1.75 litre (3 pint) ovenproof dish.

Hard-boil the eggs for just eight minutes, then drain and leave to cool. Peel and cut them into chunky slices and arrange on top of the fish.

Melt 50g (2oz) of the butter in a pan, add the flour, and cook for one minute. Take the pan off the heat and gradually stir in the reserved cooking liquor. Return to the heat and bring slowly to the boil, stirring all the time. Leave it to simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the parsley and season with nutmeg, salt and white pepper. Pour the sauce over the fish and leave to cool. Chill in the fridge for one hour.

Boil the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain, mash and add the rest of the butter and the egg yolk. Season with salt and freshly ground white pepper. Beat in enough of the remaining milk to form a soft, spreadable mash.

Pre-heat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6. Spoon the potato over the filling, mark the surface with a fork, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until piping hot and golden brown. You can also try making this with haddock and smoked haddock.

Risotto Nero

We're planning a Total Eclipse Dinner at the restaurant for August 1999, when Cornwall will go dark for 20 minutes. Our rooms have been booked up for about three years. I thought I'd do a menu of black food, then a pudding of strawberries with clotted cream to symbolise the return to light and colour. This dish will be the star of the dinner.

Serves 4

450g/1lb small uncleaned cuttlefish

1.2 litres/2 pints fish stock

25g/1oz butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 large shallots and 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

350g/12oz Carnaroli or Arborio rice

150ml/5fl oz dry white wine

3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh Parmesan

To prepare the cuttlefish: cut off the tentacles just in front of the eyes and remove the beak-like mouth from the centre. Pull the skin off the tentacles if they are large. Cut the head section from the body and discard the head. Cut open the body section from top to bottom along the darker-coloured back and locate the pearly-white ink pouch in among the entrails and remove, taking care not to pierce it. Remove the chalky-white cuttlebone and the entrails, scrape the inside of the fish clean and remove the skin from the outside of the body.

Squeeze out the ink into the fish stock, then slit open the sacs and rinse them out in the stock. Bring the stock to the boil in a pan and keep hot over low heat. Cut the cuttlefish bodies into thin strips and slice the tentacles into 4cm (112in) pieces.

Heat the butter and one tablespoon of the oil in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the shallots and garlic and cook gently until soft but not browned. Stir in the rice so that all the grains are well coated in the oil and butter. Add the wine and simmer on a low heat for a few minutes until it has almost disappeared. Add a ladleful of stock and simmer, stirring frequently, until it has all been absorbed. Continue to add the stock a ladleful at a time, stirring until it has all been used and the rice is creamy and tender but still with a little bit of a bite - al dente. This should take 20 to 25 minutes.

Heat the rest of the oil in a large frying pan. Add the cuttlefish and fry it over a high heat for one and a half minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the chopped parsley and Parmesan, and season. Spoon it into four warmed bowls and pile the cuttlefish into the centre. Serve straight away.

Squid would be a good substitute for this dish, though they don't have enough ink to make it satisfactorily. However, you can buy little sachets of ink from your fishmonger. You'll need about four.

Other Fish To Fry - Or Poach Or Grill ...

Here are 10 kinds of seafood Rick would like to see every fishmonger and supermarket stock on a daily basis

WHELKS Delicious when not boiled to death. Treat them as you would an expensive delicacy such as abalone. Poach lightly, slice the meat, and stir-fry with garlic, ginger, some stock and something crunchy like bean sprouts.

CLAMS Easily obtainable along our shores. They should be as numerous, and as cheap, as mussels. They have a similarly sweet taste.

OCTOPUS These are abundant off our shores, particularly in the south- west, but they get whisked off to Spain. Lovely when boiled simply with olive oil and dash of cayenne.

LIVE LOBSTER I write recipes using live lobster but people will often only buy cooked lobster, and there is no comparison in flavour. There's no need to be squeamish - you can deal with lobsters by chilling them in iced water. Then there seems to be less reaction before cooking them, cutting them up, or whatever.

CUTTLEFISH As good as squid but not nearly as readily available. Maybe the smeared ink puts people off, but I find it exciting. Keep the ink sacs to make black risotto (recipe above).

BROWN VELVET CRAB These are small crabs, with lovely fleshy white pieces to bite into. You should be able to buy them everywhere. And also green shore crabs, good in a fish bisque or soup.

HAKE I can't understand why we ignore hake. It has superb flavour and a soft texture. The Spanish, who call it merluza, love it and have many classic recipes for it.

LING Underrated member of the cod family. Firm-fleshed, very good for chargrilling. Looks like an eel.

EEL Both fresh eels and conger eels are much exported from the UK but little appreciated at home. Conger eel is perfect for a fish soup, as it doesn't break up. Sometimes I roast a joint with winter root vegetables. It works very well. And pence for pence, it's very cheap.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in