Tart London: How to make poached Halibut with miso, shitake and crispy kale

Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison serve up perfect parcels of poached halibut for an al fresco lunch

We love cooking fish this way, although we always struggle to explain it to dinner guests — when we tell them we’re making fish in a bag they’re often not convinced.

But that’s what it is and it’s a great dish to make when you’ve got friends coming round for supper, as you can prepare and parcel everything up beforehand. All you need to do is pop them in the oven 15 minutes before you’re ready to eat. It’s a joy serving these, with everyone receiving a present which when unwrapped releases the most wonderful exotic smells. Spring is all about clean, fresh, light flavours. You can’t imagine craving a hearty stew eaten in front of the telly. Instead you want to be out soaking up as much vitamin D as possible, feeling the last rays on your face as you sip rosé.

You want something quick, so you can spend as little time inside the kitchen as possible. Perhaps it’s a little early to be eating supper outdoors, but al fresco lunches are certainly on the cards. We like our table decorations to reflect the time of year: crisp linens and small jugs filled with wild English flowers, pastel candles and young vines winding down the table. With our poached halibut, we lay out dishes of the noodles and the kale along the table, as well as little bowls of sliced chilli, spring onion, pickled ginger and lime wedges to garnish. That way everybody can put together their own dish. The shitake broth would work just as well spooned over pan-fried fish, sliced chicken breast or tofu.

Nosey Tarts: Jemima and Lucy take a look around Jo Malone’s HQ

Poached Halibut with miso, shitake and crispy kale (Serves 4)

Ingredients

For the fish

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 piece of ginger, peeled and

chopped

2 spring onions, sliced

1 red chilli, sliced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp miso

Black pepper

4 halibut fillets

For the broth

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 large shallot, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

Small bunch coriander stems,

chopped

1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed

200g shitake mushrooms,

sliced

500ml vegetable stock

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp honey

Handful of enoki mushrooms

For the crispy kale

200g kale, stems removed and

leaves roughly chopped

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Salt and pepper

To serve

Cooked rice noodles

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients together and spoon over the fish. Cover and leave to one side. To prepare the broth, heat the oil in a pan and add the shallot, garlic, coriander stems and seeds. Sauté for 2-3 minutes and add the shitake mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the stock, fish sauce, mirin, soy sauce and honey and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the enoki mushrooms, season and take off the heat. Heat the oven to 180C. Cut greaseproof paper into 4 large squares. Put the first square in an oven dish and place one of the fish fillets drizzled with a little marinade in the middle of the square. Lift all 4 corners together and spoon over some of the mushrooms and broth.

Tie the corners together with string so the fish and liquid is contained. Repeat for the remaining three. You will have broth left — keep this to one side for reheating and serving with the cooked fish. Make the kale by tossing it in the oil and season. Bake for 5 minutes until it starts to crisp, stirring every few minutes to prevent burning. Place the tray of fish parcels in the oven for 15 minutes until cooked through.

Serve the parcels on plates to be untied at the table, with the kale for topping, reheated broth and noodles.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in