Pan Fried Red Mullet fillets on Courgette Noodles with Tomato Coulis
Red Mullet or Rouget is firm, easy to cook and reputedly very healthy, so the only downside is that it has quite a lot of bones – of the kind that are too big to swallow. I resort to using tweezers to get the bones out, you can see a line of bones on the fillet and once you’re used to it you get pretty quick at removing them, yes it’s a bit of work but well worth the trouble. Always feel the whole fish with your fingers when you’re done, as you should be able to find any errant bones with your fingertips.
The fish shrinks in cooking, so you need to count 3 or 4 fillets per person.
Ingredients
- 12 Red Mullet Fillets cleaned of scales and bones
- 2 Shallots
- 4 Courgettes cut into thin strips
- 4 Tomatoes
- a small pot Single cream
- small bunch Parsley chopped
- Aioli
- 1 Roasted Baguette
Instructions
- Put the tomatoes in boiling water for a short time so you can peel of the skin easily, then chop into cubes, trying to discard as many of the seeds as possible.
- Fry gently in a pan with some olive oil for 15 minutes, set aside.
- Now find a big pan for your red mullet, so you can do as many fillets as possible in one go.
- Heat up some sunflower oil and fry the fish skin down for 3-4 minutes. Once the skin is nice and crispy, turn it over and fry it for another minute on the fillet side. Set aside with some foil over it to keep warm.
- Add the chopped shallots and strips of courgette, then deglaze the pan with a bit of water or even better white wine, if you have some open (you can use this recipe as an excuse).
- Cook the courgettes only for a minute or so, then add the tub of single cream, followed by the parsley.
- Gently lift the fillets back into the sauce to warm them back up and make use of the fish juices.
- Serve up in a deep plate with lots of sauce and add the tomato coulis over the top.
- I like to serve some thinly sliced, toasted baguette with some garlicky aïoli on the side (see recipe notes below).
- Enjoy all those lovely flavours with a nice glass of rosé or white and a bunch of impressed-by-your-cooking friends.
Notes
Here is the Mirabeau recipe for aioli.
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