Cured fish and tomatoes with red onion, garlic and thyme

Cured fish and tomatoes with red onion, garlic and thyme

Summer

Sometimes you’ll taste a combination of ingredients or flavours that are just so good they need to be revisited time and again. This recipe is inspired by a dish Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall showed me many moons ago. The fish (I like to use wild black bream or wild sea bass) gets lightly cured with a little salt and sugar. This gives it a remarkable texture and depth, but it doesn’t get cooked as such. Tomatoes have a natural acidity that accentuates the sweetness of the fish and slightly affects the texture, in a good way. Use fresh thyme and the best extra-virgin olive oil you can get hold of and serve at room temperature; nothing here likes being too cold.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 100g (3½oz) sea salt
  • 50g (1¾oz) caster (superfine) sugar
  • 4–6 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
  • 1 bay leaf, cut into ribbons
  • 1 teaspoon coarsely crushed black pepper, plus extra to serve
  • 300–400g (10½–14oz) wild sea bass or black bream fillet, pin-boned and skinned
  • 500g (1lb 2oz) mixed small tomatoes
  • 1 very small garlic clove, thinly sliced
  • 1 small or ½ medium red onion, very thinly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

To serve

  • 2 thick slices of sourdough or good country bread
  • flaky salt

Method

Combine the salt, sugar, half the thyme leaves, the ribboned bay leaf and black pepper together in a small bowl. Lay the fish fillet down on a plate and scatter over the cure. Make sure you get a little underneath the fish, too. Leave it in the salt for about 1 hour.

Gently rinse away the cure by dipping the fish in a bowl of fresh, cold water. Don’t worry if some thyme leaves and pepper cling to the fish, that’s all flavour to savour. Pat the fish dry with some kitchen paper, then lay it on a board, skin-side down.

Use a sharp knife to cut 1cm (½in) slices, at a slight angle, from across the fillet. Place the prepared fish in a bowl. Halve the tomatoes, quarter any larger ones and add these to the fish along with the garlic, red onion, remaining thyme leaves, vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil. Very gently turn the fish and tomatoes together.

Leave the fish to stand for at least 10–15 minutes. Carefully turn everything again, then lift it out from the bowl and arrange it over a large platter or plate. Season with a dash more black pepper and a scant sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Serve with good bread.

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