This is a divine recipe, one that we fell in love with the very first time we made it. Escabeche is a cooking method that’s not far from a ceviche in the way it uses acidic liquids to ‘cook’ fish; this version heats it too, so you sort of poach the partially fried fish in the liquid, but off the heat, so it cooks using only its residual heat. So far, we’ve done it with pink bream, which is a light, slightly oily fish, with a sweet warm flavour, and light skin which fries beautifully, but it can be done with many different oily fish. We don’t, however, recommend it for the lighter, white, non-oily fish. Flavourwise it’s complex without being confusing; for a quite simple dish it’s remarkably sophisticated, the creamy, succulent fish melding beautifully with the fruity, zesty, aromatic sauce, and the comforting grassy crunch of the lemony lentils. You’ll need a medium sized glass or ceramic baking dish

The fish:-

4 fillets of pink bream, skin scaled and left on, carefully pin boned

The lentils:-

150g Puy lentils

peel of half a lemon, pith removed (a potato peeler is very handy for this)

grated zest of half a lemon

a large handful of flat leaf parsley finely chopped

1 tbspn extra virgin olive oil

1 tbspn ground nut oil

pinch of sea salt

The escabeche:-

40mls mild olive oil

40mls ground nut oil

½ a fresh fennel, very finely sliced, the feathery fronds reserved for garnish

1 carrot, sliced into fine rounds

1 small onion, halved and finely sliced

1 bay leaf

½ tsp sweet paprika

8 black peppercorns

50mls white balsamic vinegar

small pinch saffron

1 dstspn honey

pinch of sea salt

• Put the lentils and lemon peel in a pan and cover with 2cm of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently till tender, usually 20 to 25 minutes. Once cooked, drain and allow to cool

• Meanwhile, heat the mild olive oil and the ground nut oil in a medium sized pan, then add the onion, carrot, fennel and bay leaf. Cook gently, stirring every now and then, till the onions have gone soft and transparent. Add the paprika, peppercorns, vinegar, saffron, honey and 200mls of water. Season with a pinch of sea salt, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer gently with a lid on for 10 mins. Turn the heat off and leave to cool with the lid on for 5 mins

• Heat a splash of ground nut oil in a non-stick frying pan, and when hot add the fish fillets, skin side down. Fry till cooked halfway through. While they’re frying, put about half of the veg from the escabeche pan into a glass or ceramic baking dish. When the fish is half cooked, take the fillets out of the pan and place them skin side up on top of the veg in the baking dish. Pour the liquid and remaining veg over the fish and leave for 10 minutes. The fish will cook gently with the residual heat in the liquor

• Meanwhile, remove the lemon peel from the lentils, then add the lemon zest, parsley and oils and mix carefully

• To serve, place 2 tablespoons of lentils on each of 4 plates, and flatten a bit to make a platform for the fish. Place a fish fillet, skin side up, on each lentil platform, place the remaining veg around it, and divide the cooking liquor between the 4 plates, garnish with the fennel fronds and serve