Fish supper

When I saw the box of rosy red and glistening gurnard at the fishmonger, I instantly put away any thoughts of the cod and turbot that had previously caught my eye. Not that there was anything wrong with the other fish, it's just that the gurnard was some of the best and freshest I had ever seen, cheaper, too (mainly because nobody knows what to do with it, or thinks it is only good for soup). I had already begun to work out what I was going to do with it as I wended my way home.

I had been planning to do a fishy sort of dinner for friends, anyway, as some of them did not eat meat. But I surprised even myself with the resultant three fish courses that, in essence, came about from using these four beautiful gurnard. The only other main ingredient that came into play was a packet of whole prawns that I already had in the freezer, some rice and a few potatoes. More about this later.

I have always been a keenly frugal cook. There is nothing more upsetting to me than seeing good food go to waste through ignorance and thoughtlessness. I once heard of a much-stellated London chef who prepares and fillets salmon into several portions of perfectly shaped lozenges, and then chucks out the remaining unsightly pieces! Clearly these offcuts are not deemed suitable for the exacting standards that are imagined as de rigeur for inclusion in the little red book. Conversely, it is heartening to know of a similarly starred French chef in the south-west of France who prepares a dish involving duck and sweetbreads, where the duck meat is collected from the fowl's neck bone. I wonder who makes the most profit here?

It is not that difficult, you know, to make food stretch. I am sure I am not alone in remembering cold meat on Monday after the family Sunday roast, followed by rissoles on Tuesday. And it is not all to do with left- overs - or really stretching for that matter, it is more to do with getting the most out of one's chosen ingredients. For instance, when I buy chicken wings (a bargain at around 60 pence a pound) for making stock, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to lift the resultant succulent chicken meat from their spindly bones. This can be used to make wonderful chicken pies, a quick stir-fry, or minced up with a little egg and cooked potato, Indian herbs and spices, for some savoury fried rissoles; serve with lime pickle and cucumber raita perhaps.

But to return to the fish dinner. The gurnard were filleted (your fishmonger can do this for you), the bones and heads from the fish, together with the shells from the prawns, made a generous quantity of fish soup. The remainder of the soup is further used to fashion a small prawn risotto (I know you had a risotto recipe last week but you should know about this one, too) as a small middle course, and the fillets of the gurnard briefly pan-fried and eaten with a few plainly boiled new potatoes. Here is how to do it. Each dish serves four.

Main ingredients:

4 fresh gurnard weighing approx 500g/1lb 2oz each

400g/14oz packet of frozen, cooked, shell-on prawns

150g/5oz arborio rice

700g/112lb medium-sized, well scraped, new potatoes

For the soup:

4 tbsp olive oil

1 dsp tomato puree

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 leeks, trimmed, chopped and washed

3 sticks celery, chopped

12 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

the fish bones and heads

the shells and heads from the defrosted prawns

generous splash of Pernod

1 glass dry white wine

2.3 litres/4 pints water

1x400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes

the peeled, pith-less zest of 12 lemon

salt and a good pinch of dried chilli

For the risotto:

the fishy red olive oil removed from the surface of the fish soup (see recipe)

1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

the rice

12 glass dry white wine

12 tsp saffron threads

525ml/scant pint fish soup (see recipe)

the peeled prawns

3 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped

1 heaped tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

For the fried fish:

8 fillets gurnard

salt and pepper

a little flour

olive oil

1 lemon cut into 4 wedges

the potatoes, boiled or steamed until tender

First make the soup. Heat the olive oil gently in a roomy pan and add the tomato puree. Fry carefully over a low heat until the puree has become rust coloured. Now add the leeks, garlic, celery and fennel. Stew gently until coloured - about 10 minutes. Tip in the fish bones and prawn shells and turn the heat up slightly. Stir around until the bones start to break up somewhat, turn up the heat and then slosh in the Pernod and set light to it. Once the flames have died down, pour in the wine and top up with the water. Add the chopped tomatoes and lemon zest, stir well, and season with salt and the dried chilli flakes. Slowly bring up to a simmer and then start to skim the froth from the surface, which will appear in copious amounts. Once this scum has mostly been removed, start to collect the oil that manifests itself on the surface with a tablespoon and out into a small bowl; this will be used to start the risotto. Simmer the soup gently for one hour, stirring occasionally, but keep spooning off the oil.

Now tip the whole lot into a spacious colander, suspended over a clean pan. Allow to drip for at least 10 minutes, then press and push the mulchy mess around the colander, so that as much flavour left in the fish, can be transferred to the soup below. Discard the mulch and then pass the soup through a reasonably fine sieve into another vessel. Allow to stand for a few minutes and then remove any more oil from the surface and add to the small bowl.

The soup now needs some reduction to intensify its flavour. Simmer down gently, skimming any impurities as you go, until the flavour is good and full flavoured. You want to end up with around 1.4 litres/ 212 pints of liquid: 900ml/112 pints needed for soup, and 525ml/a scant pint needed for the risotto. Put the soup for the risotto into a separate pan and keep hot, ready for making the risotto.

To make the risotto, put 2-3 tbsp of the collected red fishy oil in a heavy based pot and gently fry the onion in it until golden. Add the garlic and rice and stir around over a low light until well coated with the oil. Pour in the white wine and the saffron, and allow to bubble gently until the wine has evaporated. Now, continuing to keep the pot on a low flame, start to add the hot soup, a ladleful at a time, allowing each addition to be fully absorbed before introducing the next, and keep gently stirring with a wooden spoon constantly. About three-quarters of the way through the making of the risotto, stir in the prawns and tomatoes.

Check the texture of the rice as you go along, by eating a bit; it should be cooked through yet firm, but not chalky in the middle. As I mentioned in the recipe for the asparagus risotto last week, the resultant texture should be sloppy but not soupy. Once you feel the texture and taste is right, stir in the chopped parsley. Parmesan is never, ever, served with fishy risotti.

To cook the gurnard fillets, first lightly slash the skin side with a sharp knife, only just cutting into the flesh (this will help to prevent the fish curling too much when you cook it). Now season well with salt and pepper and dip the skin side into the flour. Shake off the excess and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side in a little hot olive oil, in a spacious frying pan. Note: It is quite a good idea to initially press down lightly on the flesh side at the beginning of the cooking process, as this helps the skin to become very crisp. Serve with the plain boiled potatoes, a little extra virgin olive oil spooned over them and the fish, and serve with the lemon wedges. As you have already had two fairly rich courses - the soup, followed by the risotto - you should not need anything more than a green salad, if that. However, this dish is particularly good when eaten with garlic mayonnaise