Casting call for Fyne fish

Douglas Wright, executive head chef of Loch Fyne which has three restaurants in Yorkshire, has over 24 years of experience within a number of Michelin star and award-winning establishments including Llangeod Hall, Wales and the Cliveden Hotel in Berkshire.

Now responsible for leading Loch Fyne’s 42 restaurants, Doug oversees the creation of the quality fish dishes and seafood served, designing a new menu every six months, to keep the restaurant’s offering fresh.

Doug is also a firm believer in sustainability, using seasonal fish wherever possible, and making sure the fish at Loch Fyne is always at its best and most delicious.

Loch Fyne has restaurants in York, Leeds and Sheffield. Offering an extensive selection of delicious fresh fish dishes, the menus have all been carefully created by Doug, with the emphasis on seasonality, choice and excellent value for money.

Working with fresh fish is Doug’s passion and he knows everything there is to know about cooking seafood.

As the name suggests, Loch Fyne’s roots are firmly on the west coast of Scotland, but having cast its net wide it is now renowned all around the country with 42 restaurants nationwide.

Much of the shellfish and smoked fish served comes straight from the loch and all of the fish comes from sustainable resources and is either wild or responsibly farmed.

“I love cooking with fish, I always have,” explains Doug.

“I think it’s great to work with and I always believe that it shouldn’t be overcomplicated, the simpler it is, the better. One of my favourite fish to work with is halibut, it’s such a versatile fish, quite meaty in texture but sweet and delicate to eat.

“Salmon is great to cook with as it can take on a lot of strong flavours, which means you can be quite adventurous with it!

“This is why my recipe that uses lemon and ginger works so well.”

Salmon with lemon and ginger

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 fresh salmon fillets (about 180g each)

120g mushrooms

2 pak choi

splash of olive oil

black pepper

sea salt

For the lemon and ginger dressing

25g fresh ginger

2 lemons

tspn sesame oil

50g Demerara sugar

Method

Peel and grate the ginger 
and put to one side. Grate the zest of one lemon and squeeze the juice from 
this and the remaining 
lemon. In a heated pan 
add the sesame oil and 
lightly sauté the grated 
ginger.

Add in the lemon zest and juice, then add the sugar and cook until it has dissolved.

Heat a splash of olive oil in two separate frying pans

Place the salmon fillets in one of the pans – make sure it’s hot – and fry until golden brown, about four minutes on each side

As the fish cooks, cut the mushrooms into quarters and slice the bok choi lengthways also into quarters

Lightly pan fry the mushrooms for one minute in the second hot pan then add the bok choi, season and remove from the heat when the bok choi has started to wilt (about 2 minutes)

Split the veg across four plates, place a fillet of salmon on top and spoon the dressing over

Halibut with tomato and brown shrimp salsa

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 halibut steaks

40g unsalted butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 lemon

40g brown shrimp

160g baby leaf spinach

For the salsa

2 shallots

40g pitted black olives

1 small tomato

pinch of fresh mint

pinch of fresh parsley

40g capers

1 clove garlic

80ml olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Peel and finely dice the shallots, slice the olives, cut the tomato into quarters and remove the seeds. Concasse the tomatoes (finely dice), pick and roughly chop the mint leaves and parsley. Mix all the ingredients together and season if required, and place to one side

Prepare the salsa.

Lightly oil and season the halibut steaks.

Melt half the butter in a frying pan, and fry the halibut for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Just before the fish is done, melt the rest of the butter in a separate pan and wilt the spinach.

Season the fish and spinach to taste.

Divide the spinach between four plates, spoon the salsa around it and the halibut on top.

Seabass with stir fried Chinese leaves

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 sea bass fillets

2 large bok choi

2 large cloves garlic

1 large chilli

40g ginger

80g shitake mushrooms

160g beansprouts

Good quality extra virgin olive oil for cooking with

A couple of large table spoons (any extra you can use for another dish) chilli and sesame sauce (see below, you can just substitute with shop bought sweet chilli dip if you don’t have time to make the full sauce from scratch, but it’s not quite as good!)

Chilli and sesame sauce

Ingredients

20g caster sugar

50g whole sesame seeds

20g roughly chopped fresh coriander

200ml sweet chilli dip

50ml fish sauce

Method

Toast the sesame seeds in a small frying pan until golden brown. Mix the fish sauce with the chilli sauce, sesame seeds and caster sugar. Finish with the coriander

First prepare the sauce

Finely slice the garlic, chilli and ginger.

Wash and slice the mushrooms.

Wash the bok choi.

Pan fry the garlic, chilli and ginger in a large table spoon of olive oil until soft.

Score the skin of the sea bass and pan fry skin side down until skin is cooked and crispy, leave it skin side down and finish under the grill.

While the fish cooks, add the mushrooms to the vegetables and cook for one minute. Throw in the bok choi and beansprouts, keep mixing until the bok choi has started to wilt. Serve the fish on top of the vegetables, finishing with a generous drizzle of the sauce

For more information please visit www.lochfyne-restaurants.com