Believe it or not, I'm as much a fan of a supper short cut as the next person. I often round off long days at work with a trip to the Japan Centre in London, to pick up atray or three of sushi to eat at home. That said, there is still a case to be made for simple, homemade suppers that take no longer to cook than that sushi detour or the time it takes to warm up many ready meals.
Fish is one of the simplest, quickest, tastiest and most versatile ways of making supper in an instant. Raw or baked, fried or stewed, poached or parcelled up, it often takes only a matter of minutes to get fish to a state where it's ready to eat.
Raw fish suppers admittedly require a little planning, not least inthe acquisition of the main ingredient. But once you've got holdof some spankingly fresh fish, all you need do is cube or thinly slice it, then mix with chopped capers, gherkins, red onion and parsley, a squeeze of lemon and a few drops of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce, and you've got a fish tartare to serve on toast while it's still light outside.
Baked fish – be that whole in an oiled roasting tray or wrapped in a foil parcel – takes minutes to prepare and cook, and couldn't be any easier or healthier. Cut slits in the skin, both to make sure it cooks through and to provide handy pockets for some thin slivers of garlic or lemon, a little olive oil and/or white wine, hard herbs such as rosemary or thyme, or a splash of soy and a slice of ginger.
Shallow-frying a fish fillet, meanwhile, takes less time than poaching an egg and steaming somespinach; do all three at once and you have just about the most comforting instant meal known to the midweek table.
As for stewed, poached and braised fish, to get "instant" results takes some advance cooking (you can do this in bulk, and freeze the results inbatches), but after that you need spend only a very short time at the stove. Unlike meat, fish stews, poaches or braises within minutes, so concentrate your efforts on getting flavour and depth into the cooking liquids: sweat onions until soft and sweet; use ripe, soft tomatoes; and dry-roast and grind spices from scratch.
Then there's that staple of many an instant meal, canned fish. Salty tinned anchovies and good-quality tuna are stalwarts here, not least on pizza. Tinned sardines are another, and not just for students: one of my favourite quick meals is to blitz some with a dash of Tabasco, a little Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and tomato ketchup, and spread it on toast. Likewise, mashed tinned sardines or mackerel, mixed with lemon juice and sour cream or olive oil, make a great sauce for pasta or addition to potato salad.
Or how about smoked fish? Smoked haddock omelette takes minutes to prepare, while smoked mackerel pâté is even quicker: you can whizz one up in seconds with some English mustard, crème fraîche, lemon juice and a pinch of cayenne. There are so many options, it's no wonder the fish supper – and not just the battered variety – holds such a special place in our hearts.
Hot smoked trout with fennel, peas and ricotta
A delicate but zesty light lunch. Servesfour as a first course.
75ml olive oil, plus extra to finish
2 tbsp lemon juice
5g picked dill leaves
Salt and black pepper
1 large fennel bulb, trimmed and very thinly shaved
100g soft rindless goat's cheese, broken into chunks
¾ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
½ tsp grated lemon zest
40g pea shoots
4 hot-smoked trout fillets
150g peas (frozen are fine), blanched for a minute, refreshed and drained
1 tsp pink peppercorns, crushed
Put the oil, lemon juice and dill in a large bowl, add half a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, and whisk. Add the fennel, stir and leave to marinate for about 30 minutes. Put the cheese in another bowl and mix in the fennel seeds, lemon zest and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
To serve, add the pea shoots to the large bowl, flake the trout into 5cm pieces and add these, too, with the peas and peppercorns. Mix gently, transfer to a serving dish, dot cheese on top, drizzle with oil and serve.
Grilled lime prawns with courgette and peach salad
Marinating the prawns maximises the flavours, but if you're in a rush, it's not essential. Serves four.
16 king prawns, shells removed, heads and tails left on, deveined
8 long wooden skewers, pre-soaked in cold water
25g coriander, leaves and stems, chopped, plus 10g picked leaves
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Salt
1½ tbsp olive oil
Grated zest of 1 lime
1 medium courgette, shaved lengthways into thin ribbons
2 ripe peaches, sliced 2mm thick
30g skinless salted peanuts, chopped
10g mint leaves, shredded
For the dressing
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp caster sugar
5g ginger, peeled and julienned
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp olive oil
Take one prawn and slide a skewer through the base of its tail, then push up through the centre of the body until it comes out through the head. Put a second prawn on the same skewer, and set aside. Repeat with the remaining prawns and skewers, and lay them flat on a plate. In a pestle and mortar (or a food processor), mix the chopped coriander, garlic, chilli and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and pound to a paste. Stir in the oil and lime zest, then pour over the prawns and stir. Cover and refrigerate for two hours.
When ready to serve, mix all the dressing ingredients in a bowl, along with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Put a large grill plate or frying pan on a high heat. Once it's very hot, lay the skewers in the pan and cook for a minute or two on both side, until golden brown and just cooked. Transfer to serving plates. Add the courgette, peach, peanuts, mint and picked coriander leaves to the dressing bowl, toss gently, pile next to the prawns and serve at once.
Razor clams with saffron mayonnaise
This isn't exactly a quick meal, but it's well worth every second you put into it. If you can't get razor clams, mussels make a good alternative. Serves four.
30 razor clams
250ml dry sherry
½ tsp saffron infused in 1 tbsp boiling water and left to cool
3 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp olive oil
2 fennel bulbs, cut into 0.5cm slices.
6 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
3 star anise
2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinlysliced
2 red chillies, deseeded and thinlysliced
1 strip shaved orange rind
5g chopped parsley
¼ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
Salt
Wash the clams in cold water, gently scrubbing the shells, until the water runs clear, drain and set aside. Pour the sherry into a large sauté pan, cover and place on a high heat. Bring to a boil, then add the clams, cover again, shake the pan and steam for two to three minutes, until the shells open. Remove from the heat and lift out the clams with a slotted spoon. When cool enough to handle, detach them from their shells, cut out and discard the central brown intestinal sac, and trim off the dark-tipped end. Slice the remaining clam into 1.5cm pieces and set aside.
Strain the cooking liquids through muslin and pour 250ml into a jug. Add half the saffron and set aside. Put the remaining saffron in a small bowl, stir in the mayo and refrigerate.
Wipe clean the pan, add a tablespoon and a half of oil and put on a medium-high heat. Add half the fennel and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and sauté for three minutes, turning so it colours on both sides. Add another tablespoon of oil and repeat with the remaining fennel. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the pan and return to a medium heat. Add the shallots, star anise, garlic and chillies, and cook for six minutes, until the shallots are soft. Pour in the saffron liquid, add the orange rind and cook to reduce by half – about three minutes. Return the clams and fennel to the pot, cook for a minute, just to warm through, stir in the parsley and divide between serving bowls. Spoon over the saffron mayo, finish with the fennel seeds and serve at once.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall returns on 21 September.
