Today’s recipe comes from the Basque region in the South West of France. This dish is all about the freshness and quality of the vegetables and the delightful flavours of the extra virgin olive oil. Basque piperade is simple and tasty and can be served with eggs, ham, chicken or fish.
For this recipe I am going to use whole red mullet however, if you do not like bones you can use filleted fish such as lemon sole, megrim sole, Dover sole or John Dory.
Serves 4 people.
Ingredients
4 x 300g whole red mullet, scaled and gutted.
3 tbsp. extra virgin oil.
1 large onion, finely chopped.
1 roasted green pepper, seeded and sliced into strips.
2 roasted red peppers, seeded and sliced into strips.
1 peeled vine tomato, julienne.
½ tbsp. Tomato puree.
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely sliced.
½ tsp. Salt.
¼ tsp. Paprika.
A pinch of ground black pepper.
A pinch of granulated sugar.
2 black olives cut into strips.
10g Serrano ham. Cut into thin slices.
Pinch of Espelette chilli pepper or dried birds eye chilli.
2 tbsp. Parsley, finely chopped or wild garlic leaf if in season.
Ingredients for olive oil and lemon sabayon
2 egg yolks.
½ lemon juiced.
¼ tsp. Paprika.
180ml extra virgin oil.
1 tsp. Water.
Salt.
Method
Lightly brush the fish with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, set to one side.
For the piperade, heat olive oil in a large pot over a medium heat, do not over heat the oil.
Add the tomato puree and fry for a couple of minutes.
Add onion, peppers, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar and a pinch of espelette chilli pepper and stir occasionally for about 10 to 15 minutes until the vegetable are cooked through but haven’t taken on any colour.
Just before you serve add the tomatoes, serrano ham, black olives and paprika after a minute or two.
For the lemon sabayon, put the water and egg yolks into a stainless steel or glass bowl and set it over a pan of gently simmering water making sure the base of the bowl it not touching the water.
Whisk until the mixture is voluminous and creamed.
Heat the olive oil in a pan to about 40 degrees.
Remove the bowl of sabayon from over the heat and gradually add the olive oil to it, whisking as you add it until the sabayon is thick and the mixture looks like ribbons.
Then whisk lemon juice, paprika and salt.
Meanwhile, heat the grill to a high heat and place the fish under the grill on their gut cavity so they are standing up and grill for about 8 minutes or when the temperature probe reaches about 45 and 50 degrees for a whole fish or 40 degrees for fish fillets.
To serve, get four oval plates, place the red mullet standing up in the middle of each plate, dress the piperade around the fish.
Drizzle the lemon sabayon and parley or wild garlic over the dish.
Wine Recommendations
I would recommend an Irouleguy rose wine from the Basque region, if you are unable to source this wine then a delicious Tokay Pinot Gris from Alsace would be perfect.
