Recipe and images by Kathy Paterson
The herb marinade adds great flavour and you don’t need to be fussy about patting it evenly. Just lightly flour the fish – it gives a great little crust.
Serves 4
Fish
1 small handful parsley leaves
1 small handful coriander leaves
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 lemon, juice only
4 firm white fish fillets, skin on, bones removed
¼ cup plain flour, or more if needed
2 tbsp olive oil
2 good knobs of butter
Salad
3–4 large ripe tomatoes
½ telegraph cucumber
4 spring onions, trimmed
4 small zucchini, trimmed
½ cup green olives, pitted and roughly chopped or slivered, optional
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Put the parsley and coriander leaves, garlic and chilli in a small food processor and process until almost a paste (or chop by hand), moistening with a little of the lemon juice and adding a little salt.
Cut each fish fillet into large pieces and put onto a tray (you will find pieces simpler to handle when turning on the barbecue). Pat the herb marinade onto the fish, cover and put in the fridge while you make up the salad plates.
Cut the tomatoes into thin slices, arranging on 4 individual plates as you go. Thinly slice the cucumber and arrange over the tomato slices.
Finely slice the spring onions and sprinkle over, then using a vegetable peeler, cut thin strips from the zucchini, dropping them straight onto the salad. Sprinkle over the olives, if using.
Drizzle each salad with olive oil and the remaining lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a barbecue hot plate over medium heat. Grease well to prevent sticking.
Put the flour on a large plate. Dust each herb coated fish fillet in flour, coating both sides, putting onto another large plate as you go. Drizzle with the olive oil. Put onto the hot plate, preferably skin side down, and barbecue for 2 minutes. Turn and dot the fish with the butter and barbecue for a further 2 minutes. (Timing is a guide as depends on the thickness of your fish fillets.) Serve on top of the salad.
Tip
Remember it’s best to slightly undercook fish, as it continues to cook once removed from the heat.
Add a bowl of boiled new potatoes or flat bread to your meal.