Meet my new friend, Dab

Today has been such a good food day; not only was lunch wonderful and autumnal, I've also made a great version of a Frozen Mississippi Mud Pie, delicious-looking Apple and Blackberry Ice Cream and an incredibly calorie-heavy Snickers Cake - all for dinner parties I'm having over the next couple of days. I can't wait!

But the best part of the day (as, obviously, I couldn't start tucking into the desserts and cakes for my future guests - unfortunately...), was a very simple and incredibly tasty dinner. Dab, or Limanda Limanda as he's known to some, is my new best friend.

I went to the fish man and asked for a fillet of a white fish I hadn't tasted before. Since the white fish I generally eat is cod, haddock or mackerel, it wasn't hard to find something new - so he introduced me to the dab. A flat, fine-looking gentleman, firm enough and white in the flesh, with a sweet, soft texture and with not a single bone to pick, the fish man promised me this would be a delicious meal, whether I shallow fry, pan fry, bake or steam. I went for the simplest thing:

Poorly lit dab, carrot and curly kale

Pan fried dab with carrot salad and curly kale


Serves 1 happy Hilde


1 fillet of dab
Butter
Fish spice - anything with lemon, pepper and/or dill is good. Or just use lemon, pepper and/or dill...


Carrot
Bramley apple
Juice of a lemon, and an orange if you want to
Parsley


Curly kale

Season the fish on both sides, and put in a warm pan with just-browned butter. Fry for a little while on both sides, until the flesh browns a little, and it starts smelling gorgeous.

Meanwhile, coarsely grate carrot and apple, drizzle lemon juice (mixed with orange) over the salad, and scatter freshly chopped parsley on top.

As the fish is starting to get ready, push it to one side, and chuck a handful of chopped curly kale into the frying pan, and saute lightly in the fishy butter (add more butter if necessary). When the fish and kale are both done, serve with the carrot and apple salad, a lemon wedge and enjoy the simplest, speediest sustainable meal you'll eat all day.

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All in all, I am so glad I met Limanda, my dab friend. And good thing too, because the dab is commonly thrown back in the sea after being caught - dead. As Jamie (Jeimi, in Norwegian...) says: If we could all start eating dab now and then, it would really help ease the pressure currently on the big five: cod, haddock, prawns, salmon and tuna. Hear, hear! (He has a good-looking recipe for Mediterranean dab too, I might try that when I go back for my next dab.)