A delicious recipe for fish lovers …
Sebastian Skillings is a fishmonger, cook and author based in Dublin. Originally from London, he spent many years working in hospitality before moving to Dublin. Talking to customers and inspiring them to cook seafood was the inspiration for his debut cookbook, The Hungry Fishmonger. Sebastian hosts regular pop-ups and supper clubs around Dublin. @the.hungry.fishmonger
You can also use whiting, cod, haddock and pollock for this recipe.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 hake fillet (150g)
2 eggs
Plain flour
Panko breadcrumbs
For the tartare sauce
100g water
250g cold, cubed salted butter
1 shallot finely chopped
50ml white wine vinegar
100ml white wine
Handful chopped tarragon leaves
Handful chopped dill
Handful chopped capers
Handful chopped cornichons
Method
1. Set up a breading station with 3 separate bowls. One with the flour, one with the panko breadcrumbs and one with the eggs, beaten.
2. On a chopping board, lay a sheet of baking paper. Lay the hake fillet on top followed by another sheet of baking paper. With a rolling pin, bash the hake until flat and doubled in size.
3. Season the hake with salt and pepper.
4. Take the hake and place in the flour, followed by the egg and then into the panko. Set aside until ready for frying.
5. For the tartare sauce, take a saucepan and add 3/4 of the cold cubed butter into the water and bring up to the boil, whisking continuously. Once it’s up to the boil, take off the heat and add the rest of the butter, but this time using a hand blender. Keep blending until all the butter is melted.
6. In a separate saucepan, add the chopped shallot, white wine vinegar and wine and reduce down on a medium high heat until hardly any liquid is left. Add 2 ladles of the butter emulsion and reduce on a medium low heat until the mixture turns thicker.
7. While the tartare sauce is reducing, add some butter and a little oil to a frying pan on a medium high temperature and fry the schnitzel for 2 minutes each side or until golden brown. Once cooked leave to rest, and season with a little salt.
8. Add the herbs, capers and cornichons to the butter emulsion, mix well, taste and season.
9. Spoon the tartare sauce onto plates with the hake schnitzel on top.
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