{"id":662611,"date":"2026-06-28T10:51:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662611\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T10:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:51:46","slug":"good-fish-smells-of-the-sea-on-a-hot-stone-nathan-outlaw-on-simple-seafood-cooking-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/662611\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Good fish smells of the sea on a hot stone\u2019: Nathan Outlaw on simple seafood cooking | Fish"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 23 years since Nathan Outlaw opened the Black Pig in Rock, Cornwall, when he was 25 years old. It was a long shot that everyone told him not to take \u2013 he already had a great job at the Vineyard in Stockcross, Berkshire; his wife, Rachel, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant; and he\u2019d won a couple of prestigious young chef awards. But he wanted a place of his own; a simple menu, \u201cbistro cooking,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I became a chef. I loved cooking, my dad\u2019s a good canteen chef, he worked in a big paper mill in Kent, cooking for workers. I loved the physical aspect, standing up doing something. I loved the way there\u2019s a lot of team work. I didn\u2019t know anything about Michelin stars or being famous.\u201d But he got his first Michelin star anyway, the year after he opened.<\/p>\n

double quotation markMy mum always said to me, you can\u2019t be the one that throws your weight around, you\u2019re too big<\/p>\n

After that, he was a name, and it was fine dining and TV specials for many years \u2013 two eponymous restaurants in the St Enodoc hotel in Rock, the Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen on TV, and he kept a foothold in Mayfair with Outlaw\u2019s at the Capital in the 00s. He\u2019s a calm cook, never big on the fireworks \u2013 \u201cMy mum always said to me: \u2018you can\u2019t be the one that throws your weight around, you\u2019re too big\u2019\u201d \u2013 which is the right temperament for the food he pioneered during these tasting menu years.<\/p>\n

When he started, people only ever cured salmon, a fish he doesn\u2019t use these days because it\u2019s so hard to find a decent farm (and the conditions on an indecent farm, you don\u2019t even want to know about, but I\u2019ll give you the keywords: overcrowding, bad feed, lice). Outlaw started curing all the catch of the area, more or less (\u201cI\u2019d never cure a scallop because it\u2019s fine raw as it is\u201d), with incredible precision \u2013 the cuts have to be immaculately even, so they cure at the same rate; he\u2019d take them out of their brine of salt, sugar and white wine every half an hour to see how they were progressing. \u201cNow, people are using the technique for lots of different things. Probably because I\u2019ve showed them how to do it,\u201d he says, and this is the only time I hear him blow his own trumpet. I suppose it\u2019s easy to be your best self in a gorgeous, chef-tidy kitchen, on a beautiful day in Port Isaac, north Cornwall, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking right on to the sea, but even adjusting for that, the guy is an absolute honey.<\/p>\n

Complete dish \u2026 steamed brill with pea, shallot and cider stew. Photograph: Kate Whitaker\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

With his new book, Nathan Outlaw on Fish<\/a> (\u201cThe title\u2019s quite generic, but it\u2019s much more personal than it sounds\u201d) \u2013 and for the restaurant and B&B he now owns in Port Isaac, he\u2019s returning to a bistro sensibility, and it\u2019s reminding him of everything he loves about his work. \u201cI was always worried about getting to this stage of my career and hating it. I don\u2019t enjoy the challenge of the industry.\u201d (Anyone in hospitality will recognise the perfect storm, of every cost going up, but what you are able to charge the customer going down. \u201cBut in terms of the cooking, I probably enjoy it more than I ever have done. I get to teach a lot of guys, I get to work with great ingredients, and I\u2019ve got enough good people around me that I don\u2019t need to do anything boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a stone-cold gorgeous book \u2013 I\u2019ve made the sea bass en croute twice since I got back from Cornwall, which is no small thing considering it takes me half a day \u2013 and today he\u2019s making steamed brill with pea, shallot and cider stew.<\/p>\n

First, your fish \u2013 but never decide what you want before you get to the fishmonger, says Outlaw. Adapt your plans to what looks good, and always ask where it came from \u2013 not necessarily because you know one body of water from another, just because if they don\u2019t know, they might not be cut out for this game. I read in a Delia Smith book years ago that you should never buy fish that smelt of fish, which confused me because I can always smell a fish if I\u2019m looking right at it, but Outlaw nails this down: \u201cAn ozoney smell is like an oyster, or a really nice harbour, or the smell of the sea on a hot stone. You can smell that on good fish. Bad fish are a different kind of fishy, and what you\u2019re smelling is not the fish, it\u2019s the water it was caught in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharp and flexible \u2026 Nathan Outlaw fillets the brill. Photograph: Kate Whitaker\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Brill is a flatfish, the same shape as a turbot: \u201cTexturally, they\u2019re very different. With brill you can do raw and cured dishes, turbot you can\u2019t \u2013 it\u2019s very tough. Brill is a much more delicate fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ostentatious people call turbot the king of the sea, while all right-thinking people prefer brill. Filleting a fish like this, with its rhombus shape and frilly edges, will be daunting, and don\u2019t even try without a really sharp, flexible knife. \u201cThe bones are not straight, so you need to be able to flex around them. With a flatfish, just follow the line all the way from the head to the tail. Through the knife, in your hand, you should be able to feel the bone; if you can\u2019t, you\u2019re probably cutting into the flesh. Or you\u2019ve gone through the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can get six prime pieces from a brill, and keep the frilly bits (and the head and bones) for stock, because that\u2019s where the gelatine is and where the body of the dish will come from. \u201cA lot of traditional recipes are just \u2018boil the bones up\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s why it doesn\u2019t taste that great. If you roast the bones first, like you were dealing with a chicken, it\u2019s much tastier. You get a bit of caramelisation; you get a lot of flavour. Season it, add a little bit of olive oil, put it in the oven at about 180C\/350F\/(160C fan)\/gas 4 for maybe 25 to 30 minutes. The most important thing is only to get a bit of colour in it \u2013 if it\u2019s singed, it\u2019ll bring a bit of bitterness.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re dealing with shallots, get small ones you can braise whole: \u201cnicely and slowly, give them a bit of time, they\u2019re actually really sweet as they soften\u201d. Outlaw isn\u2019t \u201cone of these butter-and-baster chefs. I don\u2019t use a lot of dairy, apart from today \u2013 we\u2019re going to have a huge amount of clotted cream. But I\u2019m always trying to get a natural flavour. The lemon and butter thing, it is tasty, but it\u2019s also a way of covering up fish that isn\u2019t fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markI\u2019m quite finicky. If I was presented with a fruits de mer with loads of stuff on it \u2026 I\u2019d find it quite daunting <\/p>\n

Chefs are going off nonstick frying pans because of those PFAs, the so-called forever chemicals, and Outlaw has a beautiful triple-layered stainless steel pan from Robert Welch, \u201cbut the difference is, you\u2019ve got to get it hot before you put the bacon in, otherwise it will stick\u201d. It\u2019s all magnificently simple, once the shallots have collapsed \u2013 cider, stock, fresh peas, cream \u2013 then the fish itself steams in less time than it would take to microwave a ready meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m quite finicky myself, and I was so fussy when I was younger, I bear in mind what people don\u2019t like about fish, and try to make the seafood very accessible. Still to this day, if I was presented with a huge fruits de mer with loads of stuff on it \u2026 well, I\u2019d eat it \u2013 but I\u2019d find it quite daunting. And if you\u2019re starting from zero with fish and shellfish, you\u2019ve got to accept there\u2019s going to be a little bit of trial and error. That\u2019s why you should start simple and work your way up. Once you get to the fancy stuff, you\u2019ll realise the simple stuff is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ornaments on Nathan Outlaw\u2019s shelves. Photograph: Kate Whitaker\/The Guardian
Tips from the sea<\/p>\n

If you ever see a bargain, buy it and freeze it: \u201cCertain fish you can\u2019t freeze \u2013 your oily fish, the fat doesn\u2019t like being frozen, so when you defrost it, it becomes extremely fishy, and the texture just falls apart.\u201d But brill, monkfish and other white fish can benefit from being frozen if it\u2019s super fresh when you get it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an octopus invasion (did everyone know this apart from me?). \u201cThey\u2019re not our native octopus, they\u2019re from the west coast of Africa. So now, all the fishermen, when they pull up their lobster pots, all the lobster have gone and they\u2019re full of octopus. The octopus have eaten them. The only bit of light is that octopus, cuttlefish and squid only have a two-year life cycle. When they spawn, the eggs could go with the tide and they\u2019d move somewhere else. But they\u2019re very sticky, the eggs, they cling to the pots. So it could be that they stay, and the dominant fish in the UK becomes bluefin tuna and octopus.\u201d Forget what you might have eaten on a beach tourist trap, and learn to see octopus for the spectacular curiosity that it is: pork belly made of fish.<\/p>\n

Gurnard is the best all-rounder: \u201cIt\u2019s good for everything \u2013 barbecue, frying, curing. It\u2019s got qualities of a white fish that people love, but then it has the oiliness that something like bass does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dover sole sounds so luxurious, but you can often pick up a larger one because restaurants are all \u201cafter that perfect size for the one-piece finish\u201d. A big one, roasted whole and rested, is a whole new experience.<\/p>\n

Bargain \u2026 Outlaw places fish fillets in his steamer. Photograph: Kate Whitaker\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Favourite utensil: the bamboo steamer
\u201cIt\u2019s such a bargain,\u201d Outlaw says of his hardy bamboo steamer, which goes by the name Grandma Shark, after the brand of the first one he ever bought. As light as they are, these last for ever unless you let the pan underneath boil dry and singe them. Even after that, it won\u2019t look perfect but it\u2019ll just have battle scars. You can get a three-tier tower, if you\u2019re after that sort of efficiency. Outlaw makes his own cartouche of greaseproof paper, so neatly a factory could have done it, but if your style is more seven-year-old cutting paper into a snowflake, that still works.<\/p>\n

Steamed brill with pea, shallot and cider stewDelicate \u2026 Outlaw assembles the finished dish. Photograph: Kate Whitaker\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A filleted portion of brill from a good-sized fish, lightly steamed, is a comforting and pleasurable delight. Brill is such a delicate species that harsher techniques of cooking tend to dry out the edges of the fish. In this recipe, I\u2019ve paired the fish with a subtle fennel salt that brings out its character. Beneath the fish pools a fresh but rich stew of peas, bolstered with cider and clotted cream. A wonderful, delicate plate of food, I hope you\u2019ll agree!<\/p>\n

Prep 20 min
Cook 50 min
Serves 4<\/p>\n

2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp sea salt
8 slices smoked streaky bacon or pancetta
2kg brill, filleted and portioned into 4 x 120g portions
2 tbsp olive oil
A drizzle of extra-virgin rapeseed oil, to finish<\/p>\n

For the pea, shallot and cider stew
50g unsalted butter
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
12 shallots, peeled and left whole
200ml dry cider
1 sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
300ml fish stock
200g fresh peas, podded
100g clotted cream (ideally Cornish, of course!)
1 tbsp chopped mint leaves
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste<\/p>\n

To make the stew, heat the butter and oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. When the butter is bubbling, add the shallots and gently let them colour all over, stirring occasionally, for 15\u201320 minutes. Don\u2019t cook them too quickly \u2013 if they start to colour fast, reduce the heat.<\/p>\n

Once the shallots are well coloured, add the cider and rosemary and increase the heat to allow the cider to reduce quickly. When the cider has reduced by three-quarters, pour in the fish stock and simmer until reduced by half. Add the peas and simmer for a further 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, set up a large bamboo steamer or switch on the steamer oven. Crush the fennel seeds and sea salt together in a mortar and set aside. Cook the bacon until crisp under a hot grill or in a frying pan, then set aside.<\/p>\n

Season the brill with two teaspoons of the fennel seed salt and drizzle with the olive oil. Put the fish on a sheet of baking parchment and steam for four to five minutes.<\/p>\n

While the fish is cooking, add the clotted cream to the stew. Bring to a simmer and whisk it in, then add the chopped herbs. Taste and add salt and pepper as you like.<\/p>\n

To finish, ladle the stew into bowls. Peel the skin away from the brill and sprinkle the flesh with one teaspoon of the fennel seed salt. Place the fish on top of each portion of stew and add two slices of crispy bacon to each bowl. Drizzle a little extra-virgin rapeseed oil over the fish and serve, either with new or mashed potatoes.<\/p>\n

This recipe is an edited extract from Nathan Outlaw On Fish: A Seafood Handbook, published by Kyle Books at \u00a330. To order a copy for \u00a327, visit guardianbookshop.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s 23 years since Nathan Outlaw opened the Black Pig in Rock, Cornwall, when he was 25 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-662611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}