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Ingredients

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• 1 large brill weighing about 2kg – descaled, gutted and trimmed, skin on
• 100g unsalted butter
• Good swig of olive oil
• 600g cherry tomatoes
• 2 dessert spoons capers
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 4 bay leaves
• Malden salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Method

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Oil a roasting tin sufficiently sized to accommodate the brill. Sprinkle Malden salt on the oiled tine, along with a generous couple of twists of black pepper before laying the fish down. Regardless of species – plaice, baby halibut, flounder, brill etc., lay black skin up.

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Season the top side (black) with salt and pepper and then dot with little pieces of butter all over it.

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Place the cherry tomatoes around the fish, along with the capers, bay and leaves plucked from the thyme.

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Bake in a hot oven preheated to 220°C/250°F/Gas 7 for 35 minutes until the fish is just cooked and the tomatoes are puffed and blistered and gorgeously voluptuous.

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The crisp blistered skin of the brill is as delicious as the white meat beneath and the unrivalled sweetness of little tomatoes, which explode in the mouth, piquant caper flowers, sets of these simple, happily married flavours perfectly.

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Once roasted, the flesh of brill will lift easily from the comb of bones in neat fillets. Remove the two upper fillets – a pallet knife is a handy tool. Peel up the skeleton to reveal the lower fillets.

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Serve the fish with the tomatoes and all their buttery, salty-sweet caper roasting juices.

Ingredients

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• 4 globe artichokes
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 500g broad beans, podded
• 3 – 4 spring onions, trimmed
• 100g ricotta
• 1tsp Dijon mustard
• 150ml extra virgin olive oil
• Couple of sprigs of summer savory, chopped

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Method

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Prepare the artichokes and put them in a saucepan right side up. Cover with water, add a generous pinch of sea salt, bring the water to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the artichokes. To test if they are cooked, pull off a leaf and check the texture of the fleshy tip: it should be soft and yielding, so when you bite into it, it comes away easily. When the artichokes are ready, strain them through a colander and turn them upside down to allow any water inside to drain away. Leave to cool.

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Meanwhile, make the dressing. Put the broad beans in a saucepan and cover with lightly salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer over a medium heat for about 3 – 4 minutes. Drain and refresh them immediately under running cold water.

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When they are cool enough to handle, skin by gently slitting them open with a fingernail, then pressing them out with your fingers. Blanch the spring onions by tipping them into a pan of lightly salted water and leave them to simmer for no more than a couple of minutes.

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Drain and refresh them under running cold water and slice them – both the white root and green tops – into small pieces of about 2.5cm long.

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Beat the ricotta until smooth; you may find this easier if you use a food processor. Then beat in the mustard and slowly add the olive oil, beating constantly. Don’t worry if it separates – you are not aiming for a mayonnaise-like consistency, more a loose sauce. Finally, stir in the prepared broad beans, spring onions and summer savory and adjust the seasoning.

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Arrange the cooled artichokes on a plate. Carefully pull apart a few of the centre leaves and spoon over a little of the dressing. Serve with the rest of the dressing in a bowl.

Ingredients

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• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 60ml golden syrup
• 100g plain flour
• 5ml ground ginger
• 10ml brandy (optional)
• Grated rind of 1 lemon

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Method

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Grease three baking sheets and some wooden spoon handles. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup together in a pan. Stir in the remaining ingredients over a low heat.

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Drop spoonfuls of the mixture, 10cm apart on one of the pre-prepared baking sheets. Keep the rest of the mixture warm. Bake the biscuits at 180oC for 7 minutes.

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Allow the biscuits to cool on the baking sheet for 1 – 2 minutes, then loosen with a fish slice or palette knife.

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Roll the biscuits, smooth side in, round the spoon handles and leave to set. If the biscuits become too hard to roll you can soften then in the oven.

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Gently slide the rolled biscuits off the spoon handles and cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining mixture.