Pan-fried Hake with Sauce Maltaise & Purple Sprouting Broccoli
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Recipe type: Main
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2
 
Sauce Maltaise is a delicious red-tinged hollandaise with added blood orange juice, served here with seasonal purple sprouting broccoli and MSC hake.
Ingredients
Sauce Maltaise (sauce serves 2-4)
  • 1-2 blood oranges, zested and squeezed to produce 50mls juice
  • 2 large organic egg yolks
  • 125g cold butter, diced
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
Dish
  • 2 fillets of hake
  • 200g purple sprouting broccoli + other green veg such as kalettes if you can find them
  • olive oil and a knob of butter
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. It's a bit tricky getting all 3 aspects cooked in one go, so after reducing the orange I make the fish, the sauce, then finally cook the greens.
  2. First reduce your blood orange juice, by placing it in a small saucepan and heating it until it is reduced to 1 tablespoon. Add the zest and set aside.
  3. Next put a frying pan over a medium-high heat to cook the fish, and a large saucepan with steamer on another hot hob ready to cook the greens a bit later.
  4. Add a tbsp of oil to the frying pan, season the fish pieces then place in the pan skin side down, throw in a knob of butter and as it melts use it to keep basting the fish. The fish will take about 10 mins to cook, and will be ready when it is no longer opaque. Keep checking it regularly and flip over half way through cooking.
  5. you can now make your sauce Maltaise. Put the yolks, butter and 2 tablespoons water in a heavy-based pan and heat on low very gently, whisking all the time. As the butter melts, the sauce will begin to thicken. Keep the heat steady for now. Once the butter has melted, turn up the heat to medium-low and whisk vigorously until it thickens: if it begins to steam, take it off the heat, but don't stop whisking. If you are worried about it splitting or scrambling add a splash of cold water and whisk it in. This will cool the sauce down.
  6. When the sauce is thickened to your taste, stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice along with the blood orange reduction. Season with salt and pepper, taste and adjust if necessary.
  7. Finally stick the broccoli and kalettes in the steamer and cook for 3-4 minutes. Drain and then plate up with the fish and pour over the sauce.
Notes
Sauce serves a very generous 2 people, and could stretch to 4 if served with fish and greens like this. The sauce doesn't reheat incredibly reliably although I have managed it on a few occasions!
Recipe by Ceri Jones Chef at https://cerijoneschef.com/hake-sauce-maltaise-purple-sprouting-broccoli/