A great balance between the meaty and oily Gurnard and the sweet onions, salty capers and vinegar. You want the onions to be al dente so don’t cook them too long.
Fried Gurnard with Sweet & Sour Red Onions – to serve 4
- olive oil, for shallow frying
- 8 x 75g fillets of gurnard
- 50g plain flour
- 1 tsp small capers, to garnish
For the sweet and sour onions
- 50ml extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium red onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp clear honey
Cook the sweet and sour onions first. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, then add the onions, honey, ½ tsp salt and some pepper and cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are soft but still have a bit of a bite, but don’t let them brown. Keep warm.
Pour the olive oil into a wide shallow pan to a depth of 1cm and heat to 180ºC (buy a cheap jam thermometer in a cook shop for this). Season the fish fillets on both sides, coat in the plain flour and knock off the excess. Lower the heat slightly and add the fish and cook for 1 minute on each side until lightly golden and cooked through. Lift onto kitchen paper and drain briefly.
Serve the fish on warm plates and spoon some of the sweet and sour onions over. Scatter with capers and serve.
Wine Suggestion: Acidity is important here we’d recommend a white Inzolia or Grillo from Sicily.
(Original recipe from Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes, BBC Books, 2007.)
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