GREY MULLET TARTARE
If you can get your hands on good quality, fresh fish from a fishmonger you trust, this is one of the quickest light dinners or starters to a meal you can put together. Let him know you’re going to be eating the fish raw, and make sure you store the on ice until you prepare it.
The tomatoes and olives folded into the tartare give this dish a very summery flavour. But feel free to use the same technique for whatever mix of ingredients you have at your disposal. Really, all you need here is salt, quality extra virgin olive oil and some lemon juice to enjoy a nice piece of fish as tartare
This recipe was produced as part of a collaboration series with Fish For Tomorrow . In these articles we’d like to showcase the great potential that some of the less popular, more sustainable choices of seafood have to offer. We chose grey mullet for our first set of articles because it has a pretty bad reputation locally. To find out why this is unfounded, check out FFT’s companion article here.
Before we jump into the recipe I’d also like to thank Bottarga fish shop for helping me track down the fish for this project as well as the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture for providing the fish for these recipes and articles.
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GREY MULLET TARTARE
INGREDIENTS
- 300 g Grey mullet, fillets, skin removed
- 5 Cherry tomatoes, sliced
- 4 Black olives, pitted
- 10 Chives, minced
- 1 Lemon
METHOD
- Begin by preparing your ingredients: Cut the mullet into 1cm cubes and place into a mixing bowl. Immediately place the bowl back into the fridge or over ice to keep chilled while you prepare everything else.
- Cut the cherry tomatoes into 1/8ths. Remove the pit from the olives and cut into a small dice. Mince the chives and finely slice the mint. Set these up on a small tray or plate to make life easier when you come to season the fish.
- Place your bread under the grill or in the toaster and cook until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly while you prepare your tartare.
- Still in the mixing bowl, season the fish well with roughly 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a good pinch of salt. Stir to combine until the fish is evenly seasoned and has a nice shine to it.
- Add most of your tomatoes, olives and herbs. Zest half of the lemon over the mixture and add a teaspoon or so of sumac and a quarter teaspoon of chili flake.
- Squeeze the juice from a quarter of the lemon and stir to combine.
- Taste and add more of each ingredient based on your tastes. You can always add more, but without adding more chopped fish it’s going to be hard to dilute any flavours you went overboard with.
- To finish, top your toast with plenty of the tartare. Finish with a final drizzling of extra virgin olive oil and a light sprinkling of sumac.
PRO TIPS
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