Silver mullet pickled girolles, spring onions and sea aster

Serves 4

Silver mullet pickled girolles, spring onions and sea aster (Jason Lowe)

Grey mullet, or silver mullet as I like to describe it on my menus, is a really underrated fish and the larger specimens can be as good as sea bass. I've thrown in a bit of sea aster here, which is naturally a wild seashore vegetable but available in cultivated form in some shops and I've even got it growing in my garden.

4 portions of grey mullet from a large fish
60ml olive oil
100ml or so of fish stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
150g girolles or other wild mushrooms, cleaned
10 spring onions, cleaned and halved
The juice of half a lemon
A handful of sea aster, optional

Put the olive oil and fish stock in a pan with the mullet, season, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for about 3-4 minutes, then remove the fillets and keep warm.

Add the mushrooms to the liquid and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the spring onions and simmer for another minute, turning them as they are cooking. Drain off the liquid into a clean pan and simmer until you have about 4 tbsp left. Add the lemon juice to taste and toss in the sea aster if using.

To serve, place the mullet onto warmed serving plates and arrange the mushrooms and onions around.